Re: Joint user survey with EnterpriseDB?

Hi Everyone

I have been giving a lot of thought to the wider question of relationships
between businesses and the open source community. I hope I¹m not covering
old ground.

For the length of this offering, I apologise in advance; but hope it adds
something to the discussion.

I¹ve been doing some research on other open source projects ­ those that are
were set up by commercial operations (like our once:radix) and those that
are sponsored/heavily supported by commercial operations.

However you cut it, financial and physical support underpins the success of
projects like PostgreSQL. And for most people in the community, it would be
hypocrisy to deny that they are partly motivated by and derive their income
from the commercial imperative.

If it is true that open source is about Œfree speech¹ not Œfree beer¹, my
conclusion is that while there is no commercial interference in the
decision-making processes and operational activities of the community, there
is nothing wrong with giving value for money to the companies that support
PostgreSQL. In fact, I believe it is in the interest of the community as a
whole and the ongoing development and success of PostgreSQL that you do.

In the specific case of Enterprise DB, I understand that they provide
invaluable support and contribute to the success of PostgreSQL. I strongly
doubt that their management would EXPECT your support, but a QUID PRO QUO is
certainly in order.

This sort of arrangement is common in commercial sponsorship today: It is no
different to General Motors (Hmm, poor example) and Coca Cola sponsoring the
Olympics and expecting to see their own products at venues. If a
not-for-profit has only goodwill and exposure to offer in return for
commercial support, they must be willing to deliver.

However there is, of course, a balancing argument. I was recently chatting
to a MySQL specialist in Germany. He made the comment that MySQL AB has
always been on the back foot with criticism of their commercial ties. I¹ve
not heard such comments in the case of my own business (once:technologies),
but if we were a lot bigger, I expect we would.

All the altruism in the world won¹t overcome people¹s natural cynicism. I
don¹t know what the current mix of community and commercial backing is, but
I imagine that most people have direct or indirect support from business.

After six years on the fringe of the PostgreSQL world, I remain convinced
that it is the superior open source database. Whether it maintains that
position will depend on a great many things. A key success factor is
financial security and the confidence of businesses to choose it over MySQL
and other offerings. Displaying a sensitivity to the commercial imperative
is one aspect of raising that confidence.

I assume that no that policy guidelines exist for dealing with commercial
support/relationships. If they do, why is this discussion necessary?

My personal view is that policy guidelines should be developed so businesses
know what can and can¹t be done. It would take a lot of the guesswork out of
the process and could make backing PostgreSQL even more attractive to
businesses.

I think, I should point out at this juncture, that my own experience with
support from the PostgreSQL community has been extremely positive. But my
needs are small. For a larger organisation, that might not be the case.
Perhaps a survey of sponsors would be a useful exercise.

In my view: Help Enterprise DB. They have certainly earned your support and
I don¹t see any harm in what they are asking for.

On 30/6/09 8:11 AM, "Josh Berkus" <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> wrote:

> All,
>
> So it sounds like, if we improve the questions and take the sales lead
> stuff out, the community is fine with advertising the survey on
> www.postgresql.org?

Regards

Rob Napier