The use of open source software platforms by Independent Software Vendors

Abstract

The Cast4All Content Conductor Platform is an integration and provisioning suite to manage data broadcasting networks in general and digital cinema networks in particular. The framework makes extensive use of open source components and contains several extensions and modifications to those components. It is a typical case of an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) building application software on top of open source platform software. In the spirit of the open source movement, the extensions or modifications to the open source components could be contributed back to the community. However, in this paper we discuss several issues that companies face in such a situation. They extend far beyond the obvious decision whether to keep the developed code proprietary, and should not be neglected. It is argued that a closer collaboration between open source projects and independent software vendors would be beneficial to all.