MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-08-02 |
| FROM | From: "Inker, Evan"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] New Rating System for Open Source
|
New Rating System for Open Source
Techtree News Staff
Aug 2, 2005
The problem with open source software, is that it has to be tested and tried
in order to prove its workability. This can be a costly proposition for any
company.
As a solution to this problem, Intel, Carnegie Mellon University and
SpikeSource will be jointly announcing, the launch of Business Readiness
Ratings, a rating system formulated to decrease the confusion in evaluating
open source software.
According to sources, Business Readiness Ratings, which is modelled on the
Zagat survey of restaurants, is an open-source model, with programmer users
contributing judgments and determining scores. The rating system comprises;
twelve categories such as technical support, documentation, security,
quality, usability, functionality etc. Within each category, the rating can
be anywhere between 1 and 5. Also, the existence of filtering tools, enables
a potential corporate user to specify important considerations.
Commenting on the development, Anthony I. Wasserman, professor, software
engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, said, "We've provided some
leadership here, but this will live or die, based on community acceptance
and participation".
Kim Polese, chief executive, SpikeSource, asserted that companies want to
spend their money and engineering time on building useful software, that
will help them find customers and improve service and streamline purchasing
and not on evaluating software building blocks by themselves.
Fidelity Investments, a mutual funds company, claims that it underwent a
trying time, in testing its open-source software. Charlie Brenner, senior
vice president, Fidelity, said, "If there had been an initiative like this
two years ago, we could have leap-frogged a lot of what we did".
Users can access details regarding Business Readiness Ratings at
www.openbrr.org, a website in process of being created.
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