Vendor Pays OSS Developers for Enterprise Support

Anonymous Coward writes "eWeek is reporting that a company called OpenLogic is paying qualified experts in the open-source community to provide enterprise support for projects they are intimately familiar with. OpenLogic calls its new initiative its Expert Community program."

NOT paying.

[Anonymous Coward]

the article is incorrect. they DO NOT PAY.
QUOTE :
OpenLogic is looking for the best and brightest open source developers to join the OpenLogic Expert Community. As a thank you for their time, Open Logic Expert Community members can earn points redeemable for rewards in the OpenLogic Rewards program. Learn more about the OpenLogic Expert Community and the OpenLogic Rewards program.

Are you sure?

[Kelson]

From the OpenLogic Community FAQ [openlogic.com]:

Do I get paid to be a part of the Expert Community?
Yes, the OpenLogic Rewards program pays Expert Community members upon successful resolution of an incident. OpenLogic charges enterprise for support. OpenLogic's internal technical support team resolves basic issues. OpenLogic, in turn, contracts with members of the community to resolve more complex issues.

Bollocks

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Horsecrap - I can't see that quote anywhere in TFA or openlogic's press release [openlogic.com]

The press release says in fact:

Through the OpenLogic Expert Community, OpenLogic will pay qualified experts within the open source development community to provide in-depth support for open source products.

and:

In addition to paying members of the OpenLogic Expert Community to resolve enterprise issues, OpenLogic will also contribute money for each issue resolved to a fund that will be used to help further open source efforts.

And (slightly offtopic, but put more elequontly & humorously then the usual 'blah blah, oss has noone to sue'):

"We have heard loud and clear from our larger enterprise customers, some of whom are using more than 400 open source products, that they want one throat to choke for open source support," said Steven Grandchamp, CEO of OpenLogic.

You sir, are a shill from one of the proprietary companies, trembling in their boots about new business models.

Wow, redundant *and* wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

Look a bit further through their website. You'll also find the FAQ [openlogic.com] which states that these "points" can be redeemed for cash. 100+ points/incident, 1 point = $1. So if you want the cash, that's $100/incident.

Re:Bollocks

[GigsVT]

1 point is $1. You get $100 for resolving an "incident" that they claim will generally take less than 4 hours.

So $25 an hour or more. Not exactly inspiring, but not bad either, especially if it was shit you were going to fix in the next release anyway.

You will get paid!

[stormypeters]

You will get paid! For any issue you resolve successfully, you will get paid. We track how much you'll get paid in points. You can trade in the points for cash or for things like XBoxes. (This is in addition to the XBoxes being given to the first members to join on successfully resolving their first issue.) The reason we added the point system was because some people would rather have prizes like XBoxes than cash. (I was told by SEVERAL people that they'd rather get things like XBoxes because if they got cash their wives would never let them by XBoxes.) But you can trade in your points directly for dollars. Or you can save them up for XBoxes. Or you can donate them to open source software organizations.

From the EULA (or 'OpenLogic ECA')

[fiddlesticks]

Legal Agreement:Please review the OpenLogic Expert Community Agreement [openlogic.com] If you are accepted to the OpenLogic Expert Community, you will be asked to read and accept the agreement.

'Assignments may be bugs, errors, problems or other issues associated with open source projects. OpenLogic will post assignments on the Committed Community website located at www.________.com '

(their underscores, not mine)

'If you develop any source code or other material as part of any assignment, you agree that you will provide a copy of the source code or other materials to OpenLogic.You also agree to assign to OpenLogic joint ownership in any and all worldwide copyrights, moral rights and other proprietary and intellectual property rights you have in the source code or other materials'