Open Source Census off to Positive Start

Lora Bentley spoke with Kim Weins, VP of products and marketing for OpenLogic, and Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica. The companies are two sponsors of the Open Source Census, which began April 16.

Bentley: I know it's early, but how has the response been so far?
Weins: The response that we've seen to date has been pretty positive. So far, we are at over 400 machines scanned, since yesterday. Right now, we're in the mode where a lot of individuals who are reading about it are scanning their machines and submitting the information. But what we're going to be doing in the upcoming weeks is working with all of the various sponsors to recruit enterprises to scan a sampling of machines in their enterprise. As we start that process, we'll see more enterprise data and the numbers will go up.

Bentley: You mentioned that individuals are submitting their data. The census is not limited to corporate data, then?
Weins: We don't limit it, but we do ask you when you register whether you are an individual or an enterprise. Right now, on the reports we haven't yet separated them out, but that will enable us, as we go forward and we start to get enough data, to separate them so you can see the difference between what individuals are doing and what enterprises are doing.

Bentley: How long do you expect it will take before you have enough data for a statistically relevant sample?
Weins: Our hope is that by later in the summer we'll start to have a core of enterprise data — maybe from several dozen enterprises that have submitted scans on a sampling of machines — to at least have interesting data to share. Over time, we'll have to see what it takes to become statistically relevant. There's no set number that says once you have this many, it's relevant. It really depends on the distribution of the data — what industries we're covering, etc.

Bentley: Are you targeting specific industries right now or is it open?
Weins: We want it to be global, so we're not trying to limit it by company size or by industry. As we go out on the recruitment trail, one of the things the sponsors have agreed to help with is to attempt to recruit enterprises to scan machines.

Bentley: You mentioned before that you were hoping to have enterprises scan a sampling of machines. How big of a sampling?
Weins: We usually say at least a couple hundred, but sometimes it may be a few thousand, depending on the company. We usually work with them to identify what that sample might look like.

Bentley: What is the benefit to enterprises of participating in the census?
Golden: One of the key things that enterprises always want to know is "How do we stand in comparison to our peer organizations in terms of what we're doing with open source?" Ordinarily, you go to an IDC or a Gartner and say, "What are companies like ours doing when it comes to, I don't know, call center software?" With open source, it's anonymous, so there's no way to really assess that. Companies have often felt, "Well, in the absence of data, we're reluctant to go forward." So this will give them much more information about what peer organizations are doing and what other companies like them are using in terms of products and amounts of open source and things like that. It will give them a higher comfort level.

Bentley: How will you use the data once you have enough to share?
Weins: We anticipate putting out a press release on a quarterly basis that would summarize what we've found to that point, or new things that are coming up or changes over time, and do a little bit of analysis. IDC is a sponsor, and they will be providing some free analysis for the census. It will be made available to the public and then they will also be including the data as part of their research.