[beyond-licensing] potential practical outcomes

[Deb Nicholson]

On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Karl Fogel <kfogel at red-bean.com> wrote:

> Allison Randal <allison at opensource.org> writes:
> >Here are a few that have come up already, with my own best guess on the
> >type of outcome they'd be:
> >
> >- Program: OSaaS standard (w/ logo etc)
>
> No reservations on this idea -- I think it'd be really useful.
>

+1 I would like to see this group discuss what we think best (FOSS)
practices are for web services.

>
> Some reservations about the second idea, though:
>
> >- Campaign: persuade companies to stop using "community" when they
> >really mean "open source", and stop using "enterprise" when they really
> >mean "proprietary"
>
> Even though it was my rant (though one I'm sure many of us share!), I'm
> not sure this one is politically a good thing for the OSI to undertake --
> at least as one of the first things beyond licensing.
>
> A lot of companies who support the OSI, and who might even support OSI
> financially, would suddenly feel that OSI is trying shame them into not
> using marketing language that seems perfectly natural & effective to them.
> This would be campaign that has the potential to turn allies into enemies.
>
> Now, granted, currently those allies are doing something that is mildly
> destructive to open source... So maybe the way to go about it is to seek
> private consultation with some of those companies first, and try to
> cooperatively explore solutions with them.  Even if only a few companies
> cooperate at first, that's a good start, and is something that can be
> pointed to in each discussion with a new company, for a possible snowball
> effect.
>
> I guess I'm just saying that "campaign" might not be the best way to
> approach this, initially.  A behind-the-scenes effort, starting with
> companies most likely to be receptive to changing this aspect of their
> marketing, might be the way to start.  Once enough of them are doing it,
> *then* maybe a public campaign becomes practical.
>

I think that the misuse of language and the underlying misconceptions that
go with it need to be part of a larger conversation about "how do we
educate companies about open source" where we'd discuss where some of the
most painful or problematic gaps in knowledge are and discuss what we could
do to fill them in.

I'd also like for us to figure out the main ways people (and companies) are
coming to embrace free and open source software. That way we can strengthen
the existing pathways. We could also figure out where we aren't getting
people from and see if there is outreach we'd want to do in those areas.

Cheers,
Deb



> Best regards,
> -Karl
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