...making Linux just a little more fun!
Rick Moen [rick at linuxmafia.com]
[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: [myoung@prompt-communications.com: 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.netHello Ben & Kat
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. 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 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.
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 is the only team
collaboration product to offer all of these capabilities within a single
application.
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 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.
####
----- End forwarded message -----
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *