Tech briefing invite: 'What can be called open source?'

Rick Moen [rick at linuxmafia.com]

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:59:08 -0700

[Forwarding Ben's private mail, with commentary, at his invitation.]

As a reminder, Centric CRM, Inc. has recently been one of the most problematic of the ASP/Web firms abusing the term "open source" for their products, in part because their flagship product (Centric CRM) has been notorious during most of this past year as the most clearly and unambiguously proprietary software to be offered with the ongoing public claim of being "open source".

I'd call this (below-cited) PR campaign blitz -- apparently, they're intensively hitting reporters known to be following this matter -- really good news, though it has to be read attentively:

o Former OSI General Counsel Larry Rosen's "OSL 3.0" licence is a really good, excellently designed, genuine copyleft licence that is especially well suited for ASP use, because it's one of the very few that have a clause enforcing copyleft concepts within the otherwise problematic ASP market. (In ASP deployments, there is ordinarily no distribution of the code, so the copyleft provisions of most copyleft licences such as GPLv2 have no traction, and are toothless.) Also, as Centric CRM, Inc. is keen to point out, OSL 3.0 is an OSI-certified open source licence.

o At the same time, the careful observer will note that this announcement concerns the product "Centric Team Elements v. 0.9", which is not (yet?) the firm's flagship product. That flagship product remains the entirely separate -- and very, very clearly proprietary, product "Centric CRM v. 4.1", which one wryly notices has been carefully omitted completely from this communique.

Just in case there is any doubt about Centric CRM 4.1's proprietary status, here's one key quotation from the product brochure, about the applicable licence, "Centric Public Licence (CRM)": "The major restriction is that users may not redistribute the the Centric CRM source code."

Now, it may be that the Centric CRM product is on the way out, and that Centric Team Elements (with genuine open source licence) will be taking its place. Or maybe not. Either way:

The bad news, but perhaps not too bad, is that Centric CRM, Inc. has spent this past year to date falsely and misleadingly claiming that its product line is open source -- and deflecting critics by claiming that the term "open source" is (paraphrasing) subject to redefinition and needn't be limited to what OSI (inventer of that term in the software context, and standard body) defines it to be. That misleading and deceptive language is still very much a prominent part of the company's pronouncements to this day, remains on the Web site, and doesn't seem to be disappearing.

The good news is that the firm appears to be sensitive to the public relations problem it created for itself, and may be taking steps to fix it.

----- Forwarded message from Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net> -----

From: Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:01:13 -0400
To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Tech briefing invite: 'What can be called open source?'

Ahh, perfect timing on their part.

OSL3.0, huh?

----- Forwarded message from Melisa Young <myoung@prompt-communications.com> -----

Subject: Tech briefing invite: 'What can be called open source?'
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:26:47 +0100
From: Melisa Young <myoung@prompt-communications.com>
To: bytes@linuxgazette.com, editor@linuxgazette.net, ben@linuxgazette.net

We'd like to invite you to a briefing with CentricCRM's EVP, Michael Harvey to discuss a new product and the recent debate about what can be called open source - please see the two press releases below.

* CentricCRM is a leading developer of open source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology. The new product, Centric Team Elements, will bring `Enterprise 2.0' capabilities to businesses of all sizes - giving them capabilities for project management, issue tracking, document repositories and discussion forums. * Also in light of the recent open source licensing debate, started last Thursday with a blog post from Dana Blankenhorn (and discussed by Michael Tiemann, president of OSI), Michael would also like to speak to you about their new, approved OSI license.

Would you like to schedule a phone briefing with Michael? Do let myself or my colleagues Hazel or James (details below) know!

Kind regards

Melisa Young

Prompt Communications - Communicating Technology www.prompt-communications.com The Prompt Blog Centre tracks what bloggers are saying about your company: contact us for details.

===============================================================================

Centric CRM makes its first release under an OSI-approved open source license

- Centric Team Elements is available now for download under the Open Software License (OSL 3.0), one of the open source licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) -

NORFOLK, VA - June 28, 2007 - Centric CRM, a leading developer of open source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology, has today released its new Centric Team Elements (see separate announcement) application under an open source license approved by the Open Source Initiative. This is the first time Centric CRM has used such a license, which grants customers and developers greater freedom over how they use and deploy their software, including giving them the right to reproduce it, modify it, redistribute modifications and bundle the software with other applications.

Centric Team Elements is the first complete, open source, Java-based Enterprise 2.0 product. It ties together discussions, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, issue tracking and trouble-ticketing, project management, document management, and federated search in a single, unified application running on a relational database. Centric Team Elements version 0.9 is immediately available as a preview release, and is already in use by commercial customers. A Community Edition of Centric Team Elements is available for download under the Open Software License (OSL 3.0), one of the open source licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). There is also an Enterprise Edition that offers additional functionality, and comes with technical support and other benefits that are included as part of an annual subscription contract.

"Companies such as Centric CRM are creating successful business models that allow them to deliver the benefits of open source to their business customers," said Lawrence Rosen, the attorney who created the OSL 3.0 license, and author of the book `Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law.'

He adds: "I created the OSL 3.0 license to be in full compliance with the OSI's Open Source Definition, and also to encourage innovative commercial vendors to succeed. The simple yet legally precise language in the OSI-approved OSL 3.0 license encouraged Centric to develop its own innovative business model for its applications, and it allows Centric to participate fully as a software vendor in the open source community. I am very pleased that Centric has chosen OSL 3.0 for its new product, Centric Team Elements."

"We have selected the OSL 3.0 license for Centric Team Elements as it is the right decision for our community, our customers and our business, said David Richards, chief executive officer, Centric CRM. "We will continue to choose the most appropriate licenses for our products and we are dedicated to the mission of delivering innovation and value to our customer base while ensuring they have control, protection and peace of mind."

Richards continued, "Open source is about a range of business and operating practices. Our source code has always been available to anyone who wants to download and use it free of charge. We grant customers and commercial partners unlimited rights to modify our products and we currently support a completely open community of more than 10,000 registered users and developers.."

About Centric CRM

Centric CRM is the developer of two advanced enterprise-class open source business productivity applications, Centric CRM and Centric Team Elements. Both are Java/J2EE-based web applications that run on virtually any standard platform, whether proprietary or open source. They have been in continuous development for almost seven years, share identical architectures, and are fully integrated.

Centric CRM's products are used today by Fortune 500 companies in large configurations and by thousands of smaller enterprises. Centric CRM includes all common CRM modules and adds capabilities such as Website Authoring, integrated Web Content Management, Document Management, Customer Surveys, and advanced Help Desk functions. Centric Team Elements delivers a complete Enterprise 2.0 team collaboration and community management suite.

Centric CRM is a founding member of the Open Solutions Alliance and a member of the Red Hat Exchange (RHX). Among the investors in the company is Intel Capital. For more information, visit www.CentricCRM.com.

FINAL

For further details please contact:

Hazel Butters or James Gerber

Prompt Communications on behalf of CentricCRM

Tel: 617.576.5763 / 617.291.9899

centriccrm@prompt-communications.com

Centric CRM redefines "Enterprise 2.0" with release of Centric Team Elements

Discussions, blogs, wikis, RSS and more seamlessly integrated with front office CRM system

- Available for download under the Open Software License (OSL 3.0), one of the open source licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) -

NORFOLK, VA - June 28, 2007 -Centric CRM, a leading developer of open source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology, has released a preview version of its new Centric Team Elements suite, which will bring `Enterprise 2.0' capabilities to businesses of all sizes. The term `Enterprise 2.0' describes the business use of social networking and Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and RSS feeds. Centric Team Elements goes well beyond the "standard" definition of Enterprise 2.0 to include project management, issue tracking, document repositories and discussion forums, in a way that could redefine a generation's way of working.

Like Centric CRM, the company's best-of-breed open source CRM program which is used by some of the world's largest companies, Team Elements is enterprise class and offers scalability, role-based permissions and secure access as well as all of the benefits of unstructured collaboration. Because Centric Team Elements shares the same architecture as Centric CRM, it can seamlessly integrate Enterprise 2.0 features with a company's front office operations.

Centric Team Elements users can create departmental discussion forums, wikis and blogs; maintain document repositories with literature and presentations; set up and track detailed project plans; and establish RSS feeds with departmental news. Individual employees can then subscribe to those feeds, create their own blogs, submit complaints and issues, and provide ratings and reviews of the various services and components delivered by the system. Since all of this content is fully indexed, companies will be able to search for and find corporate information with the same ease and high rates of success that are now the norm on the Web. "Centric Team Elements has allowed us to implement a slew of best practices around how our management and employees collaborate on a daily basis," said William Yu, senior vice president, Information Systems, for the Panda Restaurant Group.

Externally, Centric Team Elements can be deployed as a customer-facing, community-management system which can support a company's efforts to generate "viral marketing" within its community of stakeholders. Public users will be able to subscribe to company RSS feeds and blogs, browse and contribute to wikis, rate products and services, submit issues and complaints, and interact with other customers and stakeholders. Centric Team Elements scales to support tens of thousands of users and already powers the Centric CRM community of 10,000 registered users as well as the community site of the Open Solutions Alliance (www.opensolutionsalliance.org).

By combining internal and external networking, Centric Team Elements makes seamless communication possible from consumer, through the business to the employee and back again. A customer, for example, might find a particular employee's blog worth subscribing to; and an employee might find a particular customer or customer segment's ratings useful.

"Years ago, email introduced a drastic change to the way people conducted business and business relationships. The unified, comprehensive nature of our open source Centric Team Elements product will bring about a similar change, and make social networking and community management a key part of everyday business interaction," said David Richards, chief executive officer, Centric CRM. "Today's preview release clearly shows how we will integrate community tools like blogs and wikis with business processes like project management and issue tracking in a single application."

Pricing, Licensing and Availability

Centric Team Elements version 0.9 is immediately available and is already in use by commercial customers. The product is available as a hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) application with low monthly user-based pricing. A Community Edition of Centric Team Elements is available for download under the Open Software License (OSL 3.0), one of the open source licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The Enterprise Edition offers additional functionality and comes with technical support and other benefits that are included as part of an annual subscription contract. Subscriptions are priced in 10-user blocks for small and mid-sized companies, with an unlimited server edition available for larger enterprises or external community deployments. The 1.0 production release of the product will be available during the third quarter.

About Centric CRM

Centric Team Elements delivers a complete Enterprise 2.0 team collaboration and community management suite. Centric CRM is a founding member of the Open Solutions Alliance and a member of the Red Hat Exchange (RHX). Among the investors in the company is Intel Capital. For more information, visit www.CentricCRM.com.

####

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

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