Yes, it is an interesting question :) There are other companies doing this. Collab.net's SourceXchange for example. Or CoSource. However, I'm certainly not opposed to having our own process for OpenForce specific work. Anyone up for writing the bidding system for it? ACS/pg-backed, of course.
I think this kind of biz model is perfectly fine and should be encouraged, but it's not the main model I see as useful to the Open-Source community and the software industry at large. OpenForce is focusing on all of the services that go along with large software like ACS/pg. That means installation/configuration/support/customization (customization to a certain extent, this is not the ArsDigita model). Today, big companies spend 80% of their software budget on non-licensing issues. The open-source model, with its inexistent licensing costs, works beautifully in this context.
This may be as good a time as any to begin my call for help. OpenForce is growing, and we're working on our first few clients. Our model will include a distributed service force that should be made up of good hackers like all of you ACS/pg'ers. So, if you're interested and have at least 10-15 hours/week of time to put into this, please get in touch with me via email.
The software OpenForce will support will almost always be based on ACS/pg (and sometimes ACS/Oracle, although we will just be providing the interface to Oracle, not the Oracle help), with more specialization to actually create real "business solutions" that are more specific than a generic toolkit. So, if you like ACS/pg, and you want to start working for a company that is 100% committed to the open-source process in its development *and* in its services model, you should get in touch with me.
One final note: our commitment, and more specifically *my* commitment to ACS/pg remains unchanged. My availability will vary, but I will continue to hack and coordinate as much as I can. There is plenty of good stuff in the works for ACS/pg, and our dev community is growing very successfully. So let's keep this up! Open-Source is the only way to make a real difference.....
