So I just made my first contribution to an open source project
at SourceForge.
It’s a small one, but I’m quite proud of it nonetheless. Now I’m on an open source tear, looking to replace all the code we have at work with as much open source as possible.
I’ve always used open source stuff, but I’ve never approached it with the attitude that it’s changeable. But now I’ve developed an attitude that open source code is basically just a good starting point, and I can modify it myself as I please to make it do what I want. I think it will almost always be faster to understand a well-written existing system than write one from scratch myself, and this way I can do just the interesting stuff, which to me is stuff nobody’s done before. That and when we hire new developers there’s some chance they’ll already be familiar with the system, whereas with 100% home grown you’re guaranteed to have to train them from the beginning.
I would love to take our compliance system and release it into the world as an open source project. Systems you have to purchase cost nearly $1 million a year in licensing fees, and the technical problem they solve is nearly the easiest there is. The hard part is coming up with the rules you want to test in order to ensure compliance with the law.