Hi all. I'm one of the founders of www.MindTouch.com. We make MindTouch Deki (sometimes called DekiWiki). I've been following the coming storm at TWiki for a little bit. Primarily because I've become aware of some core TWiki developers switching their development projects to MindTouch Deki. Secondarily because MindTouch is also open source and we develop a product that loosely competes with TWiki. In fear of stirring up more s**t I want to chime in here.

First let me say I do not know all the details of this mess, but I've met Peter and I think he's a stand up guy who is undoubtedly trying to do what he thinks is best for the TWiki project. Moreover, I think TWiki was way ahead of others players in this space for a long time. So, kudos to all of you.

Trademark aside, who owns the copyright for the Twiki codebase? Does any one entity? In open source, trademark is nice, but copyright is king.

I'm writing because I wanted to make two points.

First. Building a business on an open source project is a balancing act. On one side you're trying to build a sustainable business by creating revenue through customer acquisition. On the other side you have a desire to do what's best for the community of users (distinct from customers), developers, system integrators and VARs. If you're not careful you can put these groups at odds and look like an asshole or even worse, really hurt your business. This balancing act is especially challenging when you're building on a project like TWiki that has been around forever and has had a significant amount, or perhaps even the majority, of development from the community. I believe the easiest way to find balance is to have an open source core that the company(ies) can add value to in the form of development and services or even sell commercial layers of additional functionality on top of this. In this way the devs and users win and also the company(ies) are able to create clear differentiation that helps in the customer acquisition effort. You don't have to look far to see that these are the most successful open source projects and businesses. Apache Web Server is an example of this. So is SugarCRM. In both cases you have an open core that others can build and sell additional value on top of, be it open source, closed source or services.

Second. As previously mentioned there have been many TWiki developers that have migrated to development on MindTouch Deki. I encourage you to take a look at this project and product. It's modern architecture and high quality user experience is being cited as a reason for the switch. http://mindtouch.com/technology is a good resource to learn more about the architecture, http://mindtouch.com/demo provides some demo vids of the platform in action and you may download the FOSS version and source code at the developer community: http://wiki.developer.mindtouch.com

I want to reiterate that Peter and the guys at TWiki.net are surely trying to do what they think is best for the project as a whole. In every case it is true that what is best for the project is also best for the business. And vice-versa. Although sometimes it takes a misstep to realize this. I think it's interesting to juxtapose Acquia/Drupal with what's going on here with TWiki.org/.net. Being on the outside, it's easy to see what was done well and what was done poorly by these two entities.

Best of luck gang and I hope you'll take a look at MindTouch. … reply