Oracle’s acquisition of Sun was, for lack of better words, concerning to say the least, especially in light of MySQL and the future of one of the most used Open Source pieces of software on the planet.
Concern has been so great that the creator of MySQL, Michael “Monty” Widenius, started a web-based campaign to “keep the internet free.” What a storm.
For those who have been living under a rock, Oracle’s ownership of the open source database raises significant concern because Oracle has it’s own database business, which is not open source. Yikes, right?
So why should the Church really care? Here’s 3 reasons that have come to mind:
1. Philosophy
Philosophically-speaking the Church has always had an extremely close ties with open source as a movement and the elements within. (It’s always been fascinating to me how close the Church is with software development issues.)
We believe in the freedom of information and we don’t charge for the unbelievable truth that is the Gospel. Yet, the Gospel is not without boundaries and constructs and it finds it’s balance within a framework of thinking. The same thing happens with Open Source.
This has always been a healthy source of tension and balance and the Church can learn a thing or two by watching how the world reacts to significant changes in significant movements.
2. Utility
I have seen a significant shift in application development and an increased use of open source technology in the Church even within the last 12 months. It’s been incredible and people are beginning to see the value of leveraging this type of technology for the Kingdom.
And as things change with the ownership of these technologies we’re going to have to know how to manage and maintain our systems as they currently exist and make sure we’re on top of the changes for efforts of sustainability.
We need to pay attention or the products, services, and applications we use today will become quickly obsolete. Worse, ineffective.
The fact is that we use this stuff and we’re going to need to know how to continue to use it well as things change outside our control.
3. A Lesson in Faith
The bottom line and simple truth is that the technology that we use is outside of our direct control. Isn’t it interesting though how we leverage the world’s technology in an effort to be used to change the hearts, minds, and futures of men and women?
Yet we’re completely dependent on the whims and changes of a world that isn’t really interested in the salvation of men. What results, at least for me, is a continued focus on God and an increased level of faith that His initiatives and Plan is truly in His control.
Things are going to change in our technological world and typically they’ll change much faster than we’re able to manage and react to – we’re just going to have to continue to trust in Him.
Aaron says
Have you seen anybody developing an open source ChMS? I saw a church from the midwest that developed one with Ruby, anything else out there?
John Saddington says
Supposedly getshadetree is open source, but their “definition” is a bit confusing to me on a number of levels.
there are a few others out there as well if I recall…
oschurch says
Here’s a couple I found a while ago preparing to launch the opensourcechurch.com blog, but I haven’t used any of them. Therefore, I can’t make explicit recommendations except just to try them out.
http://www.churchdb.org/
http://chaddb.sourceforge.net/
kddubb
oschurch says
Also, CiviCRM was just endorsed by the Free Software Foundation for use with non-profits.
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
Stephen Bateman says
That is a freaky amount of power for Oracle to have. They could make so much stuff impossible by charging for it.
But yes, it’s a good perspective that if MySQL gets a pricetag, the gospel will still go forward.
oschurch says
Thanks for introducing an interesting topic. Of course, on a great, controversial, open source issue like this, I had to weigh in. In short, there is cause for concern, but Monty (hereafter dubbed “Mr. MySQL”) may also be blowing that concern out of proportion especially for the majority of MySQL users. Here’s why:
First, while Mr. MySQL definitely knows more about the internal workings of the business side of MySQL much better than probably anyone, I don’t think you can characterize him as an objective observer. He has been investing in MySQL for 27 years so he really wants MySQL to continue as it has. I’m not saying continuing the current status quo is a bad thing, but I also think that there are probably other good options that he doesn’t list simply because MySQL would have to turn into a different good thing instead of the same good thing. That’s the beauty of open source business models; the collective is always smarter than the individual. Of course, I won’t go as far as to say that things won’t happen exactly as he states either now that Oracle has closed the deal.
Second, while it might be cause for concern, I don’t think it’s any different than any other big merger in proprietary software land. As you said, “Things are going to change in our technological world and typically they’ll change much faster than we’re able to manage and react to”. Business change just causes concern, but it’s something that is always there no matter what the business model.
Third, I don’t agree w/ Mr. MySQLs characterization that there aren’t good open source alternatives. Granted, some of the high-end enterprise might lose a viable alternative if MySQL goes away. However, saying that none of the 50 million MySQL installations can migrate successfully to other open source alternatives is also very misleading. My guess it’s somewhere along the lines of the 80/20 rule. It’ll be 20% of the work for 80% of MySQL customers to migrate. I can also attest to it being rather simple (at least in some cases) to migrate to PostgreSQL from my past experience.
Lastly, because MySQL is open source, nothing will happen immediately. If this were proprietary land, Oracle would have much more control to speed the demise of MySQL if that’s what they intend to do. However, at least initially, community support will help widen the window to make a transition much less immediately necessary which should help other open source alternatives to step up to the plate or allow a community fork of MySQL to develop, if possible.
Like you said in point #2, my hope is that churches and non-profits start seeing the good in using open source software companies like MySQL (whether it sticks around or not) so that they invest time and resources in them. The fact that it’s even possible to fork development of MySQL and create a new, independent project from Oracle is amazing. Maybe, the fork wouldn’t be the same as the current MySQL, but maybe there will be enough community involvement to still make it a very useful piece of software for the church use cases (and others as well) for years to come. Maybe the church could even be a part of that?! What a great way to be involved in the worldwide community! Hopefully, the church is figuring out that being involved in open source and Creative Commons culture helps everyone including themselves and actually helps give them more stability that won’t ever be given by proprietary software.
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
oschurch says
Looks like for the moment MySQL is safe:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/database/showArticle.jhtml
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
John Saddington says
broken link. 😉
oschurch says
Sorry. I pulled the article id off with a bunch of junk from my rss feed:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/database/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224400002
OR
http://ow.ly/1xZ0W
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
John Saddington says
woot!