Salim Badakhchani | Certified I.T. professional, with over 20 years of experience, specialising in the banking and telecommunications industry. Passionate supporter of Community Software developed under Free and Open Source (FOSS) licenses and an early adopter and advocate of those technologies. Strong all rounder with broad industry experience spanning development and operations. Expert in defining process, documenting work flow, identifying best practice and developing tooling for automation.
Authored Comments
Thank you very much for taking the time to provide this feedback. You raised a lot of points which have been expressed by others off line so its great that you captured them in your post. We have a number of potential candidates for this re-branding and we are in the process of formulating a criteria for which we can use to select and convey it in out message. Currently we are looking for a word which can translate consistency over the range of languages in the EMEA region. I think the word should also express more than just an abstract idea also point to a concrete thing but that still remains open to discussion.
Jim, I should have mentioned this before but these complaints about open source are coming from solution providers who are doing business in emerging markets with SME's. They are pitching at marketing executives of small firms that are not technically inclined. It seems that since FOSS has expanded into these regions the marketing message has simply been one that was translated directly from the existing English and that is hurting sales. So I get their grievances and as a self proclaimed advocate of FOSS I don't see changing a marketing message that would potentially drive sales in these markets as hurting FOSS. Its could work as an opt in re-branding scheme for these folk but with a seal of approval from exiting FOSS communities.