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Community Resources
The open source community is a great place to ask questions and get support. Open source forums provide a place for users to pose queries or ask for help. There are also opportunities to share new code, tips, and other ideas with the rest of the community. By using the open source community for development and testing, participating companies can achieve a much faster turnaround for a new application.
Being Heard
Open source users typically have more influence in the development of software. They can lobby the community development group for a specific feature or develop one in house and share it with the community, who can then improve it and help work out any bugs. The more a CIO allows his or her organization to become a part of the open source community, the more likely it is that the needs of their company will be met. Ways to integrate into an open source community include making bug fixes, making suggestions, adding to the to-do list, and assigning personnel from the user company to take on a to-do list item. All of these activities contribute to a good working relationship with the rest of the community.
Sharing Changes
When a company makes changes to the source code for internal use, they don’t have to release the new code to the community. However, if the original code is under a GPL license and the company decides to distribute the derivative work, they must also distribute the source code. If they decide to keep the code internal and not share the derivative with the community, they run the risk of having to re-integrate that functionality when a new version of the open source code is made available. If the change is something that everyone can use, then it is more beneficial to release it into the community so that it is carried along with the product when a new version is created.
The open source BI community that is developed when open source software is released is a great incentive for any company to go with open source as opposed to commercial BI software.
