How open is Google's Android?
People debate how “open” various open-source projects [are] all the time. In fact, the very way I made that statement is charged because I didn’t include the phrase “free software.” Sometimes these arguments get more serious though. For example, in VisionMobile, a market research firm, A new way of measuring Openness, from Android to WebKit: The Open Governance Index report the company declared that Android was the least open project they examined. Chris DiBona, Google’s open-source manager, vehemently disagrees.
VisionMobile’s Open Governance Index, which the analyst firm used to make this call, is based on: 1. Access: availability of the latest source code, developer support mechanisms, public road-map, and transparency of decision-making. 2. Development: the ability of developers to influence the content and direction of the project. 3. Derivatives: the ability for developers to create and distribute derivatives of the source code in the form of spin-off projects, handsets or applications. 4. Community: a community structure that does not discriminate between developers.
This is VisionMobile’s own take. The company has no connection, that I know of, with open-source organizations such as the Open Source Initative or The Linux Foundation. Never-the-less, they have a point, or do they? ...
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