Open Companies More Important than Open Source

In: management & operations

4 Feb 2005

I had missed the tempest in a teapot between Jot and SocialText, but whil catching up with these old news I found this mouthful from Jonathan D. Nolen:

"What it comes down to for me as a customer, really, is this: I don’t just want open source code. I want a partnership with an open company. Open source code and open data are just a minimum bar. You also have to provide channels of communication — and participate in them. And you have to be honest about your product: both its problems and its future directions. In the end, the open relationship with your customers will prove far more valuable (as well as more remunerative) than open source code alone."

Some open source projects are living dead while some closed source software vendors managed to create thriving communities around open access to data. I know which one is more important to me as a customer.
02/27/05 update: The Open Company Test.

Comment Form

About this blog

I'm CEO of an online trade publishing firm in the marketing and defense verticals. We try to make news and data digestible and useful in an environment that is more noisy each day. This personal blog mixes my thoughts and interests on politics, business, software, and more, based on my business and personal experiences. Over the years I have posted items that turned out spectacularly wrong, and a few posts that stood the test of times better. Personal views only.

Categories

Archives

  • chris: thanks, I googled JetBlue interview and your site pulled together a number of excellent articles in [...]
  • Tim Marman: Assuming the market exists, it seems like the biggest challenge here is getting potential customers [...]
  • Konstantinos: ...and one of your first readers from back then (Webvoice anyone?) is here to congratulate you and w [...]
  • Harun Akar: http://abnhost.com just started offering FogBugz hos [...]
  • Sergio Rebelo: "Do you mind hearing some situational irony? I found this entry through a google search." Yes... me [...]