@FIRST_LIGHT

About a year ago I sat down with Michael Cote of RedMonk to record a vodcast about the open sourcing of the Flex SDK. After we discussed the news, we explored the internal decision-making process at Adobe (scrub to about the halfway mark in the video). In that discussion, I said the following about the challenges of gathering the right information to make the open source decision:

Ever wondered exactly how much of the Linux kernel was developed by corporate-backed developers vs. individual volunteers? The answer is 70%. So says this new report from the Linux Foundation.

Linux Kernel Development: How Fast it is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It

The report is packed with all kinds of interesting information like the following:

Sandro Groganz has an interesting post where he attempts to calculate the value of the MySQL brand as a component of the acquisition price Sun paid. Here's the punch line: "As of today, a whopping 85% of MySQL’s economic value added can be attributed to its strong Open Source brand." I haven't checked Sandro's math in detail, but it's clear that brand is a huge component of the value of MySQL."

Big day for deals!

Oracle buys BEA

This one wasn’t a surprise of course, but the drama around the negotiations made for some great entertainment.

I thought this Infoworld article had some good analysis on the deal as it relates to open source:

…pulling in BEA may also help the company keep the threat of open source alternatives at bay. Oracle has always had an ambiguous relationship to open source. It was quick to adopt Linux as a preferred platform, a good hedge against both Microsoft and Sun. But it has otherwise strived to keep the open source middleware and database genies in the bottle, going to a lot of trouble to run interference against up-and-coming rivals Red Hat and MySQL.

It is shaping up to be an interesting marketplace for infrastructure software. Oracle appears to be barricading itself in the old cathedral and Sun has rediscovered its passion about the bazaar. There may be a period of open source venture proliferation, followed by a shakeout and consolidation, possibly culminating in an oligopoly of open source technology and business stacks. Or it may be something completely different. Time will tell. But we’re going to see some very interesting shifts in the software landscape in the next 3-5 years and it’s going to be fun to be part of it all.

Bringing it closer to home, what does all of this mean for Drupal? I’m not quite sure yet. It’s very early days for Drupal, despite the passing of its seventh birthday. I think I agree with Dries that a period of open source CMS consolidation is coming soon. That may prove to be a microcosm of the big industry plate tectonics described above. I hope to be part of making sure Drupal stays on top.

Boris Mann posted a very insightful take on the struggle for a path to sustainable involvement in the Drupal Association. It’s a great read that raises many important points that are based in Boris’ personal experiences.

I’m still in the process of learning who’s who and getting up to speed on the way the Drupal community works. As I talk to people, read forum posts, and watch the IRC river flow by, I’m hearing multiple mentions of the kinds of challenges that Boris describes. I think it’s absolutely normal for an organization the Drupal Association’s current stage of development to have these challenges. And it’s great to see that people are actively talking about it.

We really need the Association to scale well in order to fulfill the potential of Drupal. Some people I’ve talked to in the community believe that Drupal competitors are doing a better job of organizing as a community to evangelize their technology. If that’s true (and I would like to hear opinions on that point), then it should be unacceptable to us as a community to have crucial people like Boris stressed out and overworked and uncertain of how we will succeed. We need our leadership feeling empowered and fully resourced to execute a winning strategy that we all believe in.

One of the most insightful parts of Boris’ post is the following:

“I just want to underline, again, that we need people to actually do things. Just loading more tasks onto the already busiest members of the community isn’t going to scale.”

In order for the Drupal Association to get to the next level, I wonder if it might be time for the association to hire or contract for a couple of part time staff to help get stuff done every day. These people would not need to have any voting power - their goal in life would be to execute the initiatives approved by the Association leadership. As Boris points out, there is a long list of stuff to do and relying on favors and microdonations of time creates a lot of stressful overhead and unpredictable results. Having a few paid worker bees to get things done would require the association to have a bigger budget than it enjoys today, but a community the size of Drupal should be able to find a way to close the gap.

As I said above, I have a lot to learn about the social mores and culture of the Drupalsphere, so the above could be a terrible idea and I could be lacking crucial context and insight. It wouldn’t be the first time, and I’m sure people will let me know in the comments :-). In any case, I am certain that the soon to be elected Drupal Association is going to have some healthy discussion about the topic soon and I’m confident that they’ll come up with a great solution.

Michael Cote over at Redmonk just posted a writeup and analysis of our conversation about Acquia this afternoon.

I always enjoy talking to the Redmonk guys. They listen actively and push back in real time if needed. I always leave the conversation with more than I brought into it and I always know where they stand (no surprises). If only all analyst conversations followed that same pattern…