Open Source Census Results Not Open Source?
Earlier today I wrote about the Open Source Census project, wondering what license the data collected would be distributed under.
After reading the sponsorship page for the project, I believe that OpenLogic intends to restrict distribution of the data gathered, as indicated by the following quote from the page:
Platinum sponsorship is designed for companies that want maximum exposure and full access to The Open Source Census database.
No project I participate in or company I advise will have my recommendation to participate in this project unless the data gathered is free distributed under a permissive license such as the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Taking valuable usage statistics on Free Software and Open Source that have been gathered through a community process and then restricting their distribution removes community incentive to participate in the project.
PS Yes, I do know that OpenLogic plans to share analyzed data from the survey freely — in practice this isn't enough data for serious researchers and in principle is patronizing unless the full data set is also available.
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Posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 17:31
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March 26th, 2008 at 19:00
[...] It doesn't look like the data is open. :( Link Summaryhttp://stormy.blogs.com/http://www.osscensus.org Tags: census, eZ, Legal, License, [...]
March 26th, 2008 at 22:09
We are asking for feedback on how best to make the data available. We are balancing access to sponsors who are making the project possible with making the data as accessible as possible to accomplish our goals of encouraging people to use open source software.
March 26th, 2008 at 22:31
Hey Stormy,
The following response to your comment has a strong tone. For that I apologize — you seem a nice person who genuinely engages with others and I understand the difficulty of being a public face for an organization.
However, I have worked in (and been subject to) public relations long enough to recognize a non-answer when I encounter one.
Unless I am mistaken, the current website does not in any way make direct mention of OpenLogic's plans to sell, rather than share, the raw data.
Instead, the site encourages Free Software and Open Source projects to begin contributing and allows visitors to assume that the data will be freely shared.
I would strongly advise OpenLogic to provide a very clear statement about how the gathered data shall be used. If you are seeking public feedback on this, you should make this fact very apparent.
March 26th, 2008 at 22:36
Hi Zak,
All who know me, know I'm willing to listen! With your comments in mind, we will update the website with a "how we are going to make the data available." I certainly didn't mean to give a non-answer. The honest answer is we plan to make the project data (which project, which versions, how many installs) available to all. We haven't defined the api yet and so welcome feedback.
We do plan to make the demographic data available just to people who submit data (in the form of benchmark comparisons) and to sponsors.
I always welcome feedback. I'd appreciate in the form of "here's what you can do to be successful".
Thanks!
Stormy
March 26th, 2008 at 23:24
Hi Stormy,
It is getting rather late in the day for me. Embarrassingly enough, it is past my bedtime and I would still like to get in some recreational knitting for the day.
I am sorry to have disrupted your evening.
I will write a post tomorrow on what I think OpenLogic should do to get high tactical and strategic value from this project — for your company, your clients and the broad range of people and organizations who make up FOSS.