If the dress were pretty, I would wear it

Submitted by Holly on Wed, 05/31/2006 - 7:01am.

Net2 Yesterday I spent the day at the NetSquared conference, run by CompuMentor, Home of TechSoup. I purposely didn't take my computer with me because this was my one chance in a long while to sit back and listen to my colleagues and peers. And, I'm glad that I did. I haven't heard anything groundbreaking, but it's always worthwhile to stop and collect your thoughts with your colleagues. I'll blog more on other sessions I attended, but I wanted to start with the first breakout I attended, "The State of the Open Source Sector."

Mostly, I felt like this sesson was a rehash of stuff that's already been said (repeatedly). The general message from the panelists was that Open Source still isn't ready for the general consumer market, but that it has come a long way. Oh, and we should use it anyway becuase it's better, more flexible and exponentially faster. Plus it aligns with nonprofit values.

Kara_dress Two things got under my skin. First, the argument that it's better, even if it's harder to use, seems like hot air to me. It reminded me of one of my favorite guilty pleasures, Project Runway. (Sidebar - I think I have a crush on Heidi Klum!). This last season, there was a contestant named Kara Janx. Kara is a designer who puts a lot of thought into her work. Every dress has an inspiration, and a story. A long story. She caught a lot of crap during the runway judgings for talking too much about WHY she made her dress a certain way, and not just making good looking clothes. In the end, she was cut for too much story, not enough follow through. To paraphrase a judge, "I don't care about your story. If the dress were pretty, I would wear it."

I feel much the same way about open source. By "pretty," I don't mean that it needs a gorgeous UI (though that would certainly help). But the basic applications out there are not generally usable by even the tech (semi)literate, like me. In other words, as Phil Ferrante-Roseberry just quipped (he's sitting next to me), "If I can't figure out how all the straps, snaps and buttons work, I won't put the dress on."

Argue all you like that open source is user friendly now. The fact is, it isn't, or it would be much more widely used now.

My second issue is the session failed cover any more ground than we've already gotten elsewhere, and, I think, ignored the most important contribution Open Source has made to the nonprofit technology (well, the entire technology) world. As the world economy has grown more flat - more open - and society has followed, Open Source has increased in relevance because it mirrors these values. And as open source increased in relevance, and use, the major players in software took a look around and realized that they had better get on the bandwagon. Hence, Open API's. Which are not open source. But are nonetheless revolutionary, and a direct consequence of Open Source.

How will the Open Source movement respond to Open API's? Is this a major victory for the sector? Or the wrong kind of victory taking the wind out of the Open Source sails? That's the kind of "State of Open Source Software" I want to hear about.

| the blog

re: If the dress were pretty, I would wear it
Submitted by but (not verified) on Wed, 12/31/1969 - 3:59pm.

Which open source in particular is not pretty enough to wear?
Why don't we try to convince some big funders to throw some money at
it? There is LOTS of money looking for technology that can make a
difference. They need to hear from you which software is promising but
needs help. One thing money CAN do is make technology prettier and
easier to use.

re: If the dress were pretty, I would wear it
Submitted by Holly Ross (not verified) on Fri, 06/02/2006 - 5:14am.

Thanks for your feedback Phil and Harold! I wanted to adress Phil's
point about selling the cost of developing open APIs to developers. I
had lunch with Paul Hagen a couple of weeks ago and told me that more
than half the traffic on Saleforce servers are calls from other
applications. More than HALF! By investing in an open API, SalesForce
has created an amazing community of developers to extend the feature
set of their product. By extending the feature set of the product, they
are attracting new customers and better retaining the old ones. It's
the best of the open source community with a real revenue model.

re: If the dress were pretty, I would wear it
Submitted by Phil Klein (not verified) on Wed, 12/31/1969 - 3:59pm.

Thanks for this post Holly, it does capture common concerns well. I do
think open apis have a future, hopefully we can put one together for
TechFinder and for other nonprofit tech sector apps. Personally, I'm
still not sure how to sell the cost of developing open apis to npo
business leaders or funders, how to estimate ongoing costs and risks of
open apis, and how to determine ROI for these integrations.
Thinking back on the "The State of the Open Source Sector," I'm
wondering if we should ask something like: "How good is nonprofit
sector software and how close or far is it from your dream or reality
of how attractive/efficient/ easy to use/ it should be?"
Regarding open apis, a number of folks, and I too am exploring this.
The salesforce and plone api integration project and others look
promising. To Harold's comment about being able to get support
somewhere else as a key benefit of open source, I'd say it's even more
important that good support is available from the open source
vendor/leader/owner/dev community. Right now the ad hoc support models
where devs do the support doesn't work. Dedicated support staff who can
speak non-geek and who can be patient and direct challenging help
requests to devs as needed and translate are key to the success of all
evolving software. If you can't be supported and coached (training is a
related issue) into using a product effectively, then having other
options for support is moot.

re: If the dress were pretty, I would wear it
Submitted by Harold Jarche (not verified) on Wed, 05/31/2006 - 2:33pm.

I agree that open source may not be as user-friendly as bankrolled
stuff, but user-friendly may be interpreted as "the same as what I know
how to use already". That probably means MS standard. My sons have used
open office and MS office since they could use a computer, and they
prefer OOo, especially version 2.0. User-friendly is highly dependent
on the experience of the user.
The real advantage of open source for the end-user is that you can take
your source code and go to someone else for support. You are not
handcuffed to some proprietary licensing scheme. I know, I used to sit
around and dream up the next pricing scheme for a proprietary software
developer.