Last year we wrote a piece here questioning whether open source projects were motivated to work with each other. This article was in the context of our work with OSCOM and its attempts to bring together open source content management projects and developers.

The article stimulated some interesting questions. Now that we've had some time to take some steps and try some ideas, we thought it appropriate to report back.

In summary, OSCOM interop has caught on more than expected, but the hard work remains ahead. Also, other open source interop efforts such as freedesktop.org and Linux Standards Base have shown momentum despite the odds. We have found that open source projects collaborate much less than the open access to source code would suggest.

Why does open source fall into the Not Invented Here syndrome so often?

As before, the number one barrier to open source interop is cultural. Does open source make closed minds? How do tribes form a nation? Tackling this issue isn't in the domain of software engineering, rather, social engineering.

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