NDSA:Open Source Member Questions

List out your ideas for questions for us each to respond to here. Ideally, we would like to have a relatively short set of questions that get at the heart of the key decision factors.

1. What role does different software licenses play in decisions to adopt Open Source software?
2. Can you describe a time when you adopted an open source software tool for a particular project? Describe the situation and the key factors in the decision and then evaluate how successful or unsuccessful the tool served your goals. Going forward what do you see as the key implications of this case?
3. Can you describe a time when you decided not to adopt an open source software tool for a particular project? What were the key reasons for your decision?
4. Can you describe your decision process for software? What are the key questions you ask about any given software?
5. If you have been using a open source system (for digital preservation) (KC: thought we might want to focus it) for several years what parts of managing that application take up most of your time?
6. How do you decide if the community around the software is strong and sustainable? or if it matters?
7. How do you decide how much of your own time to put into documentation to make it easier for others to use? Does this effect the decision of whether to release as open source?
8. How do you weigh the advantages of flexibility with open source against potential dependable sustainability with a vendor?