Open source dilemma - Part II

Picking up where i left off regarding open source, the second big question is around the contribution of an open source community wrt fixes, enhancements and changes to core pieces of functionality of a business application. While the open source community has done phenomenal work in the infrastructure space, is it reasonable to expect the same level of contribution when it comes to open source business application software?

Recently, i came across Alfresco (www.alfresco.org), an open source content management community. To be honest, at first glance their product looks pretty darn good. I'm seriously interested in playing with it and perhaps even evaluating it for use inhouse. The functionality as described in the product management web page of Alfresco's commercial website is definitely impressive. Given the nature of a content repository and its similarities to a database system, it appears to lend itself to a open source development model. However, it also has several characteristics that make it somewhat similar to a traditional business application software, especially its features such as workflows, reporting etc.

In my mind, the real success especially for an open source business application software is in building a community of developers that not only contribute by internationalizing the software and checking in simple add-ons but in really extending the core system by adding additional modules and core functional capabilities. What would be even more compelling is if the community consists of members from organizations that are end consumers of the software, not intermediaries looking to resell the software for profit.

Now that i have laid it out, i intend to actually talk to some of the pioneers and share with you what i find out. Check back in a week to learn more!