Some interesting questions

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.

  1. Why OXID e-sales was made open source?

  2. What has been the role of community in Product’s overall business model? (Business model consists of product focus, sales and distribution, maintenance etc.)

  3. Does Product’s business model affect its ‘openness’ to community?

  4. What is your role as a community manager at Product? (In terms of tasks)

  5. Is community management a specific process? If yes is it part of product development?

  6. Is there a structure in place for managing the community? If yes, please elaborate on the same

  7. 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?

  8. Is there a way for measuring the role of community in product’s success?

  9. In commercial OSS products focusing on enterprises, is their an increasing participation of the non-developing users in the community?

  10. If yes, then do they require different management approach?

  11. How does Product differentiate itself to its contributors?

  12. In a way, organization in commercial OSS is answerable to OSS communities. What affect the communities’ perception of a firm?

  13. In your opinion, what motivates communities to participate in product development that is for commercial purpose?

  14. What are the common issues you face while building community for the product?

  15. What, according to you, are important norms of the OSS communities?

  16. As a commercial OSS firm, do you consider it important to adhere to the norms of a non-commercial entity? If yes, why?

  17. Do you employ social technologies in your community management?


regards,
Swanand