Open Database Alliance = Awesome
The big news coming from the MySQL Community today is that Monty Widenius and Percona have founded the Open Database Alliance, a group focused on ”unifing all MySQL-related development and services, providing a solution to the fragmentation and uncertainty facing the communities, businesses and technical experts involved with MySQL”.
I, for one, am 100% behind this. I’ve always been a big fan of community foundations being a focus point for development efforts, they work well to bring everyone together, and to provide a sensible foundation to help avoid much of the uncertainty that seems to spring up around MySQL. I certainly hope that the ODA is able to do the same.
Though I do have one question, how does the ODA plan on handling competing members? If you have two companies offering the same service in the same market, which one will the ODA recommend? Monty specifically says that “all companies that are joining the Alliance should bring something to the table”, but it’s a bit difficult to bring something new when there are already several large players in the MySQL market.
I shall certainly be watching the progress of this alliance with great interest, it has the potential to turn the MySQL Community into a large driving force for development and change.
The press release is available here, Monty has written some interesting thoughts about it here.
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Gary Pendergast, noun: Gamer, developer, MySQL, WordPress, web and music geek. Currently taking a leave of absence from life as a MySQL Support Engineer for Oracle to tour around Europe. Can be observed in his natural habit at pento.net, or usually in Bologna, Italy.
