What Matters to Open Source: Licensing or Community?

"When it comes to defining open source, licensing is a critical topic since it's the license that helps to make an application or effort open. But for Michael Tiemann, president of the Open Source Initiative, it's not necessarily the only key success factor for open source projects.

"That might sound strange considering that licensing is the bread and butter for the OSI, the body that determines whether a license is open source. But Tiemann , who also serves as the vice president of Open Source Affairs at Red Hat, recognizes that licensing isn't the be all and end all for open source.

""I have come to place a much greater importance for alternative aspects of open source than just strict licensing," Tiemann told InternetNews.com. "I have come to believe that a license alone is neither a secret to success nor an absolution of sin.""

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