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Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

  • 1.  Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 10, 2015 03:52 PM

    As many of you are aware, we are following the Agile methodology so that we are positioned to deliver product enhancements that match your requirements and are published as soon as you (our validation partners) confirm that they provide sufficient value to be useful.

     

    In that vein, we propose using the Endevor Global Community Ideation facility to share field-developed product (FDP) enhancements – proof-of-concepts.  The thought is that people that have product enhancement ideas, may also have created prototype software to deliver the enhancement.  INUGE maintains a “Shareware” library that contains this type of field-developed software artifacts. 

     

    If the Community decides to move forward to leverage the Ideation facility to share field-developed software, we at CA can use the FDP as prototype examples for those features that make their way into the product (based on Ideation responses).

     

    Here are the process and rules we’d follow:

     

    Process

    1. The community would solicit volunteers to accept FDP donations, and create a standardized form that describes the feature, the value provided by the feature and the components that make up the feature.  They would also format the software so that it can be installed using SMP/E as USERMODs. (The advantage of using USERMODs is that it provides a record of what’s been installed and will enable SMP/E to detect conflicts caused another USERMOD or CA product maintenance.  The community would post the POC Idea with the attached description and USERMOD files.
    2. Anyone can download/install the FDPs – they would be very much encouraged to provide feedback to the community on the POC Idea. 
    3. If the decision is made to incorporate the FDP into the product, CA will use the feedback to prioritize and solicit validation partners. 

     

    Rules:

    1. Field-developed enhancements will be provided “AS IS” and without warranty.  CA will not provide product support for field-developed enhancements.
    2. CA will own the rights to the intellectual property associated with field-developed software posted on the Community Ideation forum.
    3. Any customer (or CA employee working on their own time) may post their field-developed product enhancements to the User Community Ideation forum.
    4. Posted FDPs may be removed if found harmful or have been superseded by subsequent FDPs or have been officially incorporated into the product.

     

      Are you interested in this in this idea?  Would you download FDPs?  Would you share your own?



  • 2.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 11, 2015 08:46 AM

    I love the idea, anything that can help improve the process that we as administers support.  I will help wherever I can, although I may not be able to donate code (as it would have to go through legal at my company) but I could provide the concept with a few hints and tips on “How to” if needed.

     

    Thank you for your support in making us successful.

    Phon



  • 3.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 15, 2015 11:20 AM

    I would like to ask you Pete,about this statement - -

     

    • CA will own the rights to the intellectual property associated with field-developed software posted on the Community Ideation forum.

     

    This does not mean that any customer donation would be considered CA's intellectual property, only the field developed software, correct?



  • 4.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 11, 2015 10:46 AM

    So, in essence, are you volunteering to take over the old Shareware process/list/contributions?



  • 5.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 12, 2015 10:59 AM

    John, yes - this process could supersede the current Shareware process.  The advantage is better visibility of contributions and pre-formatted SMP/E ++USERMOD syntax.  The goal of the later is to make it easier (and safer) to install and maintain field-developed enhancements.



  • 6.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 11, 2015 12:42 PM

    Pete:

    I don't you will get many users who will contribute FDP to  the CA Community under the conditions you set forth.  I, for one, would not contribute for the simple reason of one of the "rules":  "2.  CA will own the rights to the intellectual property associated with field-developed software posted on the Community Ideation forum. "  Why would I forfeit the rights to CA of a FDP (software) that I spent time and effort  developing? I might be willing to "give" it away to another Endevor user BUT I certainly wouldn't want CA to make a profit on it just because I chose to contribute and CA chose to include my idea / code into their software.  That was one of the basic tentants of the I-NUGE Shareware.  Contributions were not to be sold or otherwise result in a profit by the person / company that uses the contribution.  All rights of ownership were retained by the company / developer of the Shareware.  We strictly controled who could obtain the Shareware to Endevor users and did not let other software companies download the contributions.  My two cents for what its' worth.



  • 7.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 16, 2015 11:48 AM

    Hi James,

     

    I hear you.  CA's goal is not to make a profit on field-developed solutions, rather leverage the Ideation forum to not only post product enhancement suggestions for community comments / voting, but also enable people (including CA people) to share their related field-developed solution so that 1) other customers can benefit (and provide even better feedback on the idea) and 2) CA has a working prototype that it can use as a model to implement the enhancement into the product. 

     

    There's no expectation that CA would charge for incremental features that are adopted into the product.  Regarding IP ownership (Rule #2), this is a protection for CA - so that we can incorporate features / improve the product without fear of being sued, at some point in the future, for theft of intellectual property.

     

    By all means, if someone would like to create and sell Endevor add-on products, they are certainly welcome to do that.  There is nothing in our Ideation/FDP-sharing proposal that precludes people from developing/selling add-on software products.  There are companies that are doing that today.

     

    Our goal of this proposal is to combine the Ideation process and our Agile development methodology so that CA can work with the community to incorporate and publish (and support) those product enhancements that are important to the Endevor community in a timely fashion..

     

    Pete



  • 8.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 16, 2015 01:44 PM

    Pete:

     

    Given your explanation (above), maybe Rule #2 should be amended to say something like this: "Submitter / Developer retains all rights to the intellectual property associatd with the field-developed software posted on the Community Ideation forum but said Submitter / Developer grants CA implicit rights to use and/or incorporate features of the field-developed software or otherwise improve the Endevor product."   This amendment, I believe, would protect CA from litagation but would protect the developer's rights of ownership should he/she decide to further develop the software for sale or for use by his or her company.

     

    I continue to believe that Rule #2 (as written) will forfeit all rigths of the Developer (or of his / her company) to the field-developed software.  Companies or individuals that who would allow field-developed software to be shared will most probably not allow sharing if that would cause a loss of ownership.



  • 9.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 17, 2015 10:59 AM

    Hi James,

     

    As I mentioned, this effort is intended to provide a mechanism that enable members the Endevor community who would like the product enhanced to provide their field-developed solutions with other members of the community generate interest and comments that CA can use to prioritize and incorporate (given the interest-level) the enhancement into the product. 

     

    People that wish to retain ownership their IP (not wish to have their enhancement included in the product), but share their field-developed enhancements with the community, are certainly free to do that on their own. 

     

    Pete



  • 10.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 17, 2015 04:25 AM

    Pete, If this can be used to build new features into the delivered product from CA then I'm all for it.



  • 11.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 12, 2015 12:44 PM

    Hi Pete,


    We would have the same issue as Phon and would not be able to donate code due to company restrictions. James makes some very valid points too.

    However from CA we want fully supported features that are built into the product, we can't implement unsupported CA shareware.

     

    Emlyn



  • 12.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 12, 2015 02:35 PM

    I think this is a great idea for CA developed FDPs.  Not sure it's worth the effort to try to manage Endevor customer provided FDPs as part of this process.  I'm thinking shareware developed by Endevor customers could be handled informally with a regular discussion post to the Endevor community site.



  • 13.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 22, 2015 10:02 AM

    I'm a bit concerned about the use of SMPE for these. As they are unsupported it is probable that we would not introduce them to our live system. However if we did use them in our live system then I can see that SMPE is the way to go. Is it possible to make SMPE optional?



  • 14.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 22, 2015 12:33 PM

    Is it just me or does anyone else see irony in using SMP/E to apply changes to a change and configuration management solution....?



  • 15.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 22, 2015 12:44 PM

    No irony at all.  We deliver the product through SMP/E.  Why not a usermod to deliver an FDP?



  • 16.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Posted Jun 22, 2015 03:27 PM

    Bernie:

     

    I wonder how many Endevor Admins / Users would know how to format their FDPs into SMP/E format.  How would these would / could make it into Chorus (the desired direction from CA)?



  • 17.  Re: Would you be interested?  We have a “Shareware/Open Source” idea that we’d appreciate your feedback on...

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 22, 2015 04:25 PM

    I would suspect that some education would be necessary, but if there were a default SMP/E wrapper or something to use for guidance, it would be relatively easy to build the USERMOD.

     

    CSM will accept external maintenance into the catalog so installing it there is very easy.