Open Forges and App Stores

Open Forges and Open App Stores:Joining the dotsScott Wilson, OSS Watch

Forges ...

... and App Stores

What are the differencesForges are focussed around the code andthe tools for the developer community, withperhaps a "prosumer" user experience.Its up to projects if they want to build theirown more user-centric "shopfront"App stores are more focussed on theconsumer experience with a genericshopfront

App StoresPlatform-centric: iOS, Android, Mac AppStore, Windows 8...Operator-centric: Vodafone, Orange...Plugin directories: Wordpress, Chrome,Opera...Open Web Apps: Mozilla, OpenAppMktNiche stores: ITEC, SURFNet, Widgr,internal enterprise stores

Traditional software downloadsCNetTucowsSoft32Open Source MacSoftpedia...

Joining UpWhat are the issues?Contracts and licensesMetadataPublishing and synchronisationIntermediaries

Joining Up: Legal issuesSome FOSS licenses are not necessarilycompatible with app store terms of service(e.g. GNU Go, VLC...)App Store model isnt necessarily a good fitwith distributed open communitiesNeed to interpret different store contracts,agreements and T&Cshttp://oss.ly/appstores

Joining Up: Metadata issuesForge metadata is focussed aroundinformation related to the management ofthe project, the code and community(developer-centric)App store metadata is focussed arounddiscovery, use and suitability (user-centric)Standards?

Joining Up: PublishingIntegrating stores and forgesMultiple target storesSigning and PackagingBeyond one-shot publishing - synchronisingreleases

Joining Up: Intermediaries

Is it worth it?App stores seem to have a natural maximum sizebefore becoming less useful for discoveryApp stores may be a side-channel rather than themain channel for distribution - doesnt replace havinga user-centric website as well as developer-centricforge pageFor many open source projects that are cross-platform, many potential app stores to targetHow important is it to forges?

Scott Wilson, OSS Watch@scottbwscott.bradley.wilson@gmail.com@osswatch

Open Forges and App Stores

by scottw on Oct 11, 2012

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