Wednesday June 15, 2005

Johnny L., top software dude @ Sun, has joined the blogosphere. If you want to better understand how OpenSolaris "came to be" from an executive view (represented in ascii), then check out Johnny's blog.

The other day I read this article with quite a bit of interest. In the article, Matt Asay asks some pretty interesting questions about what the "open source" community is today. Lately Ubuntu is getting quite a bit of attention. What really sparked my thought around community life cycle is the article in combination with the newly forming OpenSolaris community.

I think it was Tim Bray who said [I'm paraphrasing heavily] that blogs discuss the here and now . So if you look at a blog over time (or the blogosphere in general), it is a constantly evolving discussion ( or set of discussions). It's a moving window of conversation. IMHO, communities behave in a similar manner. I think there are lots of reasons communities form, change in popularity, and perhaps even dissipate. With communities, however, it is a "macro discussion" based more on participation with a longer time scale.

Communities form from common interests with a goal in mind. The goal could be a product or social agenda (not meant in a negative way). Communities change in popularity for many reasons, be it politics, "freshness" of ideas, external forces, etc.

Communities can also dissipate due to lack of participation because the conversation goes elsewhere or perhaps the community goal was accomplished. Perhaps the need simply goes away. I'm not sure a community has to enter this phase. The community could simply be a solid medium for ongoing discussion and participation.

As of yesterday, OpenSolaris has entered the initial phase of the lifecycle. The greater Linux community (which consists of many communities on different levels) is well beyond this. The goals of Linux and OpenSolaris are similar. They are platforms where individuals can express their ideas and others can leverage them. These two communities differ in how they want to accomplish this (e.g. their licenses).

Just because one community enters the "creation phase" doesn't mean others have to enter the "dissipation phase". At the same time, a successful community doesn't obviate the need or desire for others. I, for one, will continue to participate in many communities, including Linux (desktop) and OpenSolaris.