Excellent post. I <a href="http://www.adventuresinoss.com/?p=202">wrote something similar</a> back in 2008, so the debate has being going on for some time.
Almost everyone involved in open source projects starts off as a freeloader, and I hate the expectations that some people have concerning reciprocity. In our project, I'm just happy that folks find it useful, and if they want to contribute: be it code, comments, or just community - that's just icing on the cake.
I especially liked your comments about GSoC. We've be participating for years now and it is a lot of work. People often forget the mentoring side of things. However, it can be very rewarding (we have at least one amazing student this year) and the experience you gain through the program can easily transfer to working within an open source community in general.
I posted our experiences with trademarks <a href="https://opensource.com/business/11/6/open-business-importance-trademarks-even-open-source-business">a couple of years ago</a> on this site.
One way to get around the "merely descriptive" part is to demonstrate that, through use, the descriptive term has become associated with a particular product or brand.
I won't repeat the whole story here, but I was able to show that OpenNMS, instead of being a descriptive term for an open source network management system, had become synonymous with our project.
Authored Comments
Excellent post. I <a href="http://www.adventuresinoss.com/?p=202">wrote something similar</a> back in 2008, so the debate has being going on for some time.
Almost everyone involved in open source projects starts off as a freeloader, and I hate the expectations that some people have concerning reciprocity. In our project, I'm just happy that folks find it useful, and if they want to contribute: be it code, comments, or just community - that's just icing on the cake.
I especially liked your comments about GSoC. We've be participating for years now and it is a lot of work. People often forget the mentoring side of things. However, it can be very rewarding (we have at least one amazing student this year) and the experience you gain through the program can easily transfer to working within an open source community in general.
I posted our experiences with trademarks <a href="https://opensource.com/business/11/6/open-business-importance-trademarks-even-open-source-business">a couple of years ago</a> on this site.
One way to get around the "merely descriptive" part is to demonstrate that, through use, the descriptive term has become associated with a particular product or brand.
I won't repeat the whole story here, but I was able to show that OpenNMS, instead of being a descriptive term for an open source network management system, had become synonymous with our project.