Dear Marco,
I am Swanand Deodhar from India. I am a doctoral student from India and my specialization is open source software (OSS). In order to get initial ideas on functioning of commercial open source, I have formulated some questions, Kindly reply.
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Why OXID e-sales was made open source?
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What has been the role of community in Product’s overall business model? (Business model consists of product focus, sales and distribution, maintenance etc.)
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Does Product’s business model affect its ‘openness’ to community?
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What is your role as a community manager at Product? (In terms of tasks)
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Is community management a specific process? If yes is it part of product development?
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Is there a structure in place for managing the community? If yes, please elaborate on the same
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As the product focuses on enterprise users. This is significantly different from the traditional success stories of OSS such as Linux that are used by enterprise and non-enterprise users. Does this affect the building of community in terms of size?
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Is there a way for measuring the role of community in product’s success?
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In commercial OSS products focusing on enterprises, is their an increasing participation of the non-developing users in the community?
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If yes, then do they require different management approach?
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How does Product differentiate itself to its contributors?
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In a way, organization in commercial OSS is answerable to OSS communities. What affect the communities’ perception of a firm?
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In your opinion, what motivates communities to participate in product development that is for commercial purpose?
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What are the common issues you face while building community for the product?
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What, according to you, are important norms of the OSS communities?
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As a commercial OSS firm, do you consider it important to adhere to the norms of a non-commercial entity? If yes, why?
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Do you employ social technologies in your community management?
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regards,
Swanand