[Foundation-l] Open source CRM needed for Wikimedia

[Erik Moeller]

I won't comment on the specific question, but on the underlying
Wikimedia policy issue.

The Board can decide the policy for software use by the Foundation.
What would a sensible policy look like? I think an a priori "open
source[*] only" policy is problematic since there are of course areas
where open source software cannot (yet) compete.  For instance, I'm
not aware of a professional open source optical character recognition
(OCR) solution, which is crucial for digitization.

However, we do need to be aware of the risks of proprietary software:
vendor lock-in, company bankruptcy, no code availability for security
auditing, and so on. Aside from that, supporting open source is an
important matter of outside perception for the Foundation.

How about a policy that states:
- when no adequate (as determined by its prospective users) 100% free
software solution for a task can be found, a proprietary solution may
be used.
- such use needs to be reported and documented in a list of
proprietary software used by the Foundation, so that the decision can
be debated and challenged by the community.
- in such cases, a partially proprietary solution is preferable to a
fully proprietary one.
- a migration plan should be made as soon as a realistic fully open
source alternative emerges.
- the Foundation should, within its budget, support the development of
such an alternative.

Does that make sense?

Best,
Erik

[*] Apologies to those who prefer "free software"; I use the terms
interchangeably.