Open Source is created by a large variety of individuals and companies. In recent years there has been an increase of adoption of Open Source Software by businesses. This adoption has created business opportunities and companies are trying to benefit from this in various ways. One common characteristic of companies that are most actively trying to take advantage of open source business opportunities is a relatively small size. This makes it difficult to market offerings to customers. The goal of the introduction of a Quality Services Alliance Project (QSA project) is to foster the creation of a sustainable eco system of open source developers, open source service providers and open source adopters.
The situation in the open source market can be compared to the market for organic food two decades ago. There has been a group of producers that grew food in a special way, most of them small. Customers had to get the organic food themselves, evaluating quality was up to the customer. As the idea of organic food became more broadly adopted the producers organized in associations (e.g. Demeter) that took over the role of sales and provided a quality brand. Specialized organic food supermarkets played also an important role to simplify the consumption of organic products. The breakthrough came after the introduction of a European Union quality certificate in 1991. Nowadays almost every classical supermarket is also providing organic products, and the largest part of the revenue with organic food is through classical supermarkets.
The commercial open source community can learn two things from the history of organic food. The aggregation of open source by specialized companies is helpful in broadening the market (compare RedHat to the organic supermarkets), but a common quality certificate can help to bring products into the classic distribution channels. Classic distribution channels need common standards to enable them to provide a choice of products to their customers. Open Source does hardly offer any standards, apart from often used licenses. The capability to compare products is a key ingredient for making open source offerings ready for broader adoption.
Therefore, the goal of the QSA project is to establish a certificate of quality for Open Source offerings. To learn more about the QSA project become a member of the Open Source Business Foundation and join the project group!
Members
