[Cialug] open source drying up?

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Nathan C. Smith <nathan.smith at ipmvs.com>wrote:

>
> I just wanted to float an idea and see if anyone had thoughts or different
> perspectives on this.
>
> I propose that sometime after 2008, when the recession took hold, the
> number of people available to work on open source projects started to
> decrease as companies went through layoffs and had to do more with less
> people.


It has been observed at several open source projects' communities have
plateaued, in the sense that they're only replacing contributors at about
the same rate that people are leaving. (It's pretty typical for there to be
churn in the communities btw)

There have been a lot of suggestions why this might be happening.



>  I might also suggest that company or foundation supported open-source
> projects are the ones in making headway and in the limelight now with less
> "garage-type" projects growing into notoriety.
>
>
I'm not sure I agree with this one. I can say from experience that even
bigger projects are feeling it. (maybe Chris can speak from an Apache
perspective)

I *think* (no numbers to back this up) that garage type projects will be the
last to suffer. I expect that such projects are fueled by people who are
scratching an itch. I honestly don't think more big projects make for fewer
itches.

When I first tried out Mac OS I thought, "wow, the community around this
really encourages developers to keep their source closed and sell their
widgets." It was so very different than the Linux community where developers
are encouraged to work in the open and share with each other.

Apple's products and influence have increased. I wonder if they rise of the
$0.99 app is influencing things.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin and twitter

♫ You're never fully dressed without a smile! ♫
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