Open Source Myths

In a couple of weeks, at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011, I will be giving a talk on “Open Source Code: Understanding the Options and Implications”.  I’m planning to cover the basic components of Open Source projects: License, Copyright, and Governance (and Trademarks – let’s not forget trademarks!), and I will use a few open source projects as examples of how all these pieces work together.  One of the motivations for the talk is RIM’s increased presence in the Open Source community, so I will also briefly cover that.

Time permitting, I want to include some “Open Source Myths”: misconceptions about that must, can or cannot be done in Open Source.

Here is an initial list, to give you an idea of what I have in mind:

• Open Sourcing means you have to let anybody commit code into your code base
• If I use open source, I have to open source all my code.
• If I use a GPL license, I can’t charge any money for my apps.
• I can limit who can use my open source code by “hiding” the code
• Trademarks and Brands don’t matter in Open Source
• ASL2 is much more cumbersome to satisfy than BSD
• I can save a lot of Development $$s by Open Sourcing my project

If you have your favorite myth, add it to this blog as a comment. The DevCon audience is not very familiar with Open Source, so, don’t be shy, even simple myths can be very useful to the audience.

And, if interested in my session, it is DEV34 – Wed, October 19th. 10:15 AM – Yerba Buena Ballroom 1-2, in the San Francisco Marriott Marquis (nice photo, btw, it’s the hotel from the reflective pool/waterfall in the MLK at Yerba Buena Garden’s)

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