Forum OpenACS Q&A: Questions for community members who make a living working with OpenACS

Hi All,

I've done a little bit of "informal" work setting up OpenACS-based websites for some companies in my community. Now, I've got a chance at some bigger contracts, and need to organize my business more formally.

I'm writing this posting now for a couple reasons.

First, when you start a business, you need to speak to lawyers.  I got some raised eyebrows when I told them that I will need to license some of my original work under the GPL.

Second, the recent posting "Goodbye OpenForce" has just spooked me.  Are any people running stable, profitable, longer-lived businesses using OpenACS as a key piece of technology?

So, I'd like to take a risk and lay out my plans a bit, in the hope that some of the community members here will care to share some of their experiences.

Here's what I propose to do in general:

* Form a company.  Build OpenACS based websites for clients (other businesses).  Do this at a profit.

* Respect the GPL, the contribution of the OpenACS community, and my clients, while still running a business.

Here are some of the specific things I propose to do:

* Create new OpenACS packages that extend the toolkit for particular clients.  These would be customer-specific.  My company would retain copyright on this new code, which would be released to our clients under the GPL.

* Fix bugs in the core toolkit as I find them.  Pass the fixes back to openacs.org.

* Avoid changing the core toolkit, if possible.  Maintain a set of changes if there is no alternative.  Put the changes up for public download (should anyone be interested).

* Look for other ways to contribute back.  (Maybe some docs or some new code that has general usefulness.)

A lot hangs on what the community expects from those members using OpenACS to make a living.  What, if anything, is customary?  Do you make everything publicly available?  Do you release your GPL code only to your customers?

The page on openacs.org "Understanding Open-Source Licensing" also lays out some concerns about the definition of a derivative work in software.  Is there a customary interpretation within the Open ACS community?

Whew.  Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
-- Paul

Paul, it seems to me you've got a pretty good idea about what running an OpenACS business involves. About your two concerns, I think that if you have clients already this is all the proof you need for believing that OpenACS can be traded profitably (not that I would know...). (1) The GPL is actually not a problem; since you'll in fact be selling services and not products, it doesn't matter if the product is free. (2) The GPL is also the essential reason why there is a good chance that your business will succeed; because the code is free, you and your clients won't have to invest money in the product you offer but only in your work skills.

You're also asking about the community standards, that is, how the community expects OpenACS companies to behave. This issue is rather central to OpenACS professionals, and it has recently been addressed in another thread. There's no explicit statement on what is customary or accepted behavior, but in practice the norms are set by the OpenACS leadership (which is quite natural in an informal meritocracy). Adherring to the (implicit) community standards may in fact be the real key to running "stable, profitable, longer-lived businesses". That's why the dotLRN boards has begun to take an interest in stating these norms.