Is your project a Hydra?
Posted by Ian Holsman
In a recent post to one of the private member lists inside of the Apache Software Foundation, we were told that one of a project’s major contributors (of the project, not the ASF itself.. don’t get alarmed) was pulling out, due to the company he is currently working for switching standards.
The poster was a bit glum, about it, but as one of the other members mentioned:Fortunately we have strong support from many sides.This is the key to open source. It isn’t about a individual or a particular company.
When reviewing your open source project for possible use in your organisation, you need to ask:
Is this project a Hydra?
If one of the heads gets chopped off, will 3 others grow to replace it?
If not, avoid it.
This is one of the key reasons for the incubator in Apache, and what makes Apache projects what they are.
Don’t get me wrong, there are other factors you need to consider, (the Hydra was vanquished after all), but I believe this is what seperates True Open source projects, and open source ‘marketing’ wannabe’s.