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Nuxeo and open source project governance
09-Oct-2006Leaders of the open source ECM project Nuxeo caused a stir recently when they decided that their heretofore Zope/Python codebase would migrate completely to Java. Seth Gottlieb details the story here. You may never have heard of Nuxeo since the community is based largely in France and francophonie, but it is not a small project. Nuxeo project leaders argue that conversion to J2EE standards would take no more work than upgrading to the new Zope 3 platform. Technically speaking, that may be true, although none other than software guru Joel Spolsky says that rewriting from scratch is "the single worst mistake any software company can make." Perhaps the bigger story here is that open source projects driven by a single firm and its close partners are well positioned to make tough decisions, but as a user, you may find more protection in a project that has broader community-led governance. Of course, that takes time to evolve, and the Mambo/Joomla! experience suggests the journey to effective community leadership can be bumpy. BTW, what's the other big open source project closely managed by a major (VC-funded) consulting firm? That would be Alfresco... [Update 10/10/06: Nuxeo CEO Stefane Fermigier argues in an e-mail today that the "close partners" I cite above included all the major external contributors to the codebase.]
- Submitted by: Tony Byrne, Analyst
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