Eclipse illustrates open source development diversity

One of the common myths about open source software is that it is developed by communities of individuals. It is a myth that continues to propagate despite multiple sources of data that show the depth and breadth of corporate contributions to open source software. Communities come in many shapes and sizes, however, and corporate-dominated projects don’t necessarily mean a lack of community or collaborative development.

As we have highlighted on numerous occasions, we are seeing growing focus on corporate-led open source communities. A prime example would be the Eclipse Foundation, which is clearly dominated by corporate interests but encourages a community effort to work together to with a joint purpose – to deliver the Indigo release for example.

Dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that Eclipse is not so much a community but a set of set of projects with their own communities, however. Forrester’s Jeffrey Hammond once described Eclipse as neither a Cathedral nor a Bazaar, but a Mall, in which each project is the equivalent of an individual store, with its own needs and commercial drivers, but with a shared infrastructure and common purpose.