Big data meets Bruce Perens: an open-source “covenant”

Balancing an open-source community with commercial interests can be difficult, which is why HPCC Systems sought the help of Bruce Perens before open-sourcing the code for its eponymous big-data-processing software. I covered the open-source news last week. Afterward, open-source pioneer Perens directed me to an essay he wrote on the HPCC Systems site explaining the new licensing model he helped create for the software that aims to disrupt Hadoop’s big data dominance.

When HPCC Systems launched in June, LexisNexis CTO Armando Escalante told me the company thought it had to open-source its code in order to compete with Hadoop, an Apache Software Foundation project, for developer mind share. HPCC might not have too much of an issue selling large enterprise on its software, but Escalante acknowledged the importance of keeping the product relevant by engaging a community of developers that will keep its features up-to-date and valuable for new use cases.