[Mediawiki-l] Please convince me to make my software open source (2)

[Platonides]

Bernard wrote:
> Or a competitor can create the same kind of
> SAAS solution but more cheap because I have the costs, and the 
> competitor the profit.

If the competitor doesn't innovate, he will be just copying your
version, unable to provide the new features the client wants.


> Credits
> If I make my software Open Source I get the credits for that. That is 
> very important to me. If enterprises want to use a wiki internally they 
> can do so with the Open Source version. But the real knowledge is within 
> Wikiation, my company.
> Credits are very strong related to the license. Do I really get the 
> credits? I know in theory it should be. But how this can be achieved in 
> real life?

Your extension should register itself in Special:Version. It will show
there the extension name, the author and a link to its root site.

If someone else uses your software to give out the same services as you,
you will still be credited there. If they chosed the other guy just
because he was 50% cheaper and it's enough his lower level of support,
it's ok. If they want you can point on how the other guys are using your
software, and show that your company is leading that development. Thus,
it is in their interest to have the best company, that is, yours.
Of course, you may be from that role if you stop improving it and
another one does. Even in that case, you would still be able to give a
better service to your customers than if you were the only owners of the
extension by taking *their* fixes.


Could the rival company remove the line giving you credit from there?
Yes, but that is considered a Very Bad Behavior in the Free Software
community, and are likely to be breaking the license. Almost all
software licenses have a statement saying that the authors must be
credited. They could argue that you are still credited in some hidden
file, but that's borderline on their side.
Removing from there a significant contributor (pretty much, the sole
author!) from where they were shown, is morally dubious and might void
their license to use your extension.