Open Source Being Repositioned in Corporate America
July 30th, 2007 by Tom Adelstein
Open Source methodology has gained some ground in one of the last places you and I might expect: In the development area of corporations. Consultants are calling environments like Sourceforge Enterprise Edition a Digital Development Environment.
What about CVS and Subversion? They call that a code collaborative. Well, what about the developer's itch? That's now the sponsor's charter.
How long will it take for the new moniker of Digital Development Environment (DDE) to replace the term Open Source? I might assert that your guess isn't as good as mine. I don't mean that in an arrogant way. I just happen to live in that part of the consulting world where CIOs and Directors want to reposition OSS terms that scare their subordinates.
The term DDE appears is more digestible. CIO and directors are calling OSS methodology the new paradigm; it's something that IT workers expect as the world shifts away from analog development cycles to digital ones.
I anticipate that Open Source adoption will accelerate rapidly under the new moniker of DDE. If you think about it in terms of positioning, the term Open Source isn't needed in an enterprise.
One bright spot does exist in this "adopt and extend" model. If you consult, the companies engaged in changing their paradigms need you. They need a DDE consultant to teach them how to do Open Source development. Go figure.
Tom Adelstein currently works as a contract technical writer in the Information Technology Field. In March 2007, his latest O'Reilly Book, Linux System Administration was released. Tom's home web site Open Source Today has tips and techniques for system administrators and Open Source VARs.
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DDE: Dynamic Data Exchange?
On August 1st, 2007 Adrian Price (not verified) says:
To me, 'DDE' will always be Microsoft's OLE/COM precursor (not a particularly pleasant memory ;-) )
DDE
On August 1st, 2007 Anonymous (not verified) says:
DDE?? Digital Development Environment could mean anything. Why not pick an acronym that actually means something, instead of yet more marketspeak?
corporate-speak
On August 2nd, 2007 Alton Moore (not verified) says:
It's odd how people seem to need to invent these goofy terms. I guess the idea is that if someone else is doing it already, it must be laudable and one had better get with the program!
Ah, for the good old days, when we got together with the users, figured out what needed to be done, and then did it -- in Cobol at that -- and everything worked fine. And the computer didn't need to be rebooted and the server didn't need to be patched all the time. ;-)