activeCollab - making the numbers but not sharing the values
2007.03.09
The community backlash over Ilija Studen’s announcement to alter the development path of activeCollab is a typical example of what happens when successful FOSS projects go proprietary. Perhaps it was Ilija’s lack of faith in FOSS values from the very beginning, or perhaps it was simply the lure of venture diesel, but the decision has been made and damage already done. Only time will tell if a free (as in freedom) fork would take off and become mainstream.
The Promise
When aC first came out there was an overwhelming response, mainly from the design/dev community. People who liked Basecamp but were not willing to use a hosted app, as well as those who couldn’t afford it were probably the early adopters. In fact, Ilija himself said: I wanted Basecamp but didn’t want to pay for it.
Not everyone was interested in the fact that aC was released under GPL, but there were plenty of FOSS fanatics who wouldn’t have used it if it weren’t for the free license. By releasing his wonderful little app under GPL Ilija made an unspoken promise to keep it free as in freedom, along with a specific promise to keep it free as in free beer:
I find it normal to expect something in return for your work. activeCollab will always be free but there will be commercial support as soon as we hit 1.0 for people who need a little more that community support, you can hire me to customize activeCollab to fit your needs or help you integrate it with system you are already running on your server.
It’s natural for plans to change as a project matures, but this sort of major deviation from the original vision is guaranteed to cause frustration and disappointment in the community, especially among the more active contributors.
Sharing the values
There’s no denying that Ilija is a talented developer. He has done a wonderful job with activeCollab, and deserves all success with his proprietary venture too. It’s a shame that he couldn’t come up with a better model that utilized FOSS profitably, and I feel it has a lot to do with his lackadaisical approach to FOSS ideals, as seen in this thread:
I’m not the guy who think that software should be free, community developed and supported and all that open source mambo jumbo. I’m more for controlled development process (you noticed that, right?) and main reason why activeCollab is open source at the first place is because it was the good idea at the time. Nothing more (no ideology or stuff like that - it was just a simple math).
This incident could very well turn out to be a mini version of the Mambo fiasco. If the owners of a project don’t share the values of the community, a split would be inevitable. When the planets align properly, some of those splits kick ass.
If he seriously considers the option, Ilija could still monetize the project retaining the controlled development method while keeping aC free. However, that requires believing in FOSS in the first place. Making the numbers without sharing the values would not be sustainable in the long run.
People who make the numbers and share our values go onward and upward. People who miss the numbers and share our values get a second chance. People with no values and no numbers - easy call. The problem is with those who make the numbers but don’t share the values . . . we agonize over these people.
