Comments on: MPower Open keeps moving forward

By: Bookmarks about News

Bookmarks about News — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:45:07 +0000

[...] – bookmarked by 2 members originally found by mgtrack15 on 2008-10-29 MPower Open keeps moving forward http://www.zenofnptech.org/2008/07/mpower-open-keeps-moving-forward.html – bookmarked by 4 members [...]

By: Alfred Nutile

Alfred Nutile — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:04:00 +0000

Just wondering if you have seen http://www.civicrm.org

It runs on a linux server (which I do not think this MPower does?

CiviCRM has a great forum for community.

And since it ties into Drupal or Joomla you get a complete frontend / backend system.
??
Thanks for a great site!!

By: Matthew Edmondson

Matthew Edmondson — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:04:22 +0000

I am tempted to install Windows just to see what this CRM is like. It would make me feel dirty but I guess it might be worth it since you recommend it so much. This would be the first step I guess to making something better that was sustainable for NGO’s. Thanks again for the post you bad blogger. ; >

By: admin

admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:59:42 +0000

Yeah, I certainly worry about that dynamic with company-led open source software. The “open source” ends up just being a buzzword label they can use, but has no meaning, if they don’t foster the community around the software.

But there are successful counter examples. So we’ll see what happens.

MPower has the additional hurdle that their software is written in .NET, and requires Windows. There is a smaller community to draw from in terms of interest in being involved in open source projects.

By: David Geilhufe

David Geilhufe — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:47:35 +0000

There is a fascinating catch-22 about the MPower case:

(1) It is very hard to build a community of users/developers because of the dominant rather than nurturing role of the MPower company in the community… MPower is likely competing for the same customers that might inspire a developer or consultant to get involved with the platform.
(2) The customers, as a general rule, check to the open source or open API box on their RFP and then hire the vendor to do the implementation…. they just don’t have the technical chops to really dive deep into the software.

So in the end, MPower has little incentive to be a neutral “nurturer” of an ecology (becuase it can’t grow as fast) and the community has little incentive to participate since there isn’t a neutral nurturer.

At the same time, it really doesn’t make a lot of difference to the customer that was going to hire Mpower anyway. The customer only hits a down side if Mpower does a poor job as a vendor and there is no alternative vendor to switch too since the ecology is small.

It will be interesting to watch things develop.