Market Research in our Rationale

[rjmajma]

Not sure why we're contextualizing our usage of open source with the term "market research" since it is couched in the procurement world. The rationale should likely reflect the reasons which we use open source by default (which we do a good job of).

I've made a pull request and take a pass at a next iteration ASAP.

[konklone]

The source code policy's whole top section is very much couched in procurement nomenclature. It feels like it has more of an internal audience than external one. Which makes sense, but it'd be great to amplify the impact on anyone who starts reading the doc from the top.

Maybe an introductory section with a more plain language description of the policy? Similar to how Creative Commons gives you separate human-oriented and lawyer-oriented versions of their licenses?

[quepol]

:+1: looping in @NoahKunin

[NoahKunin]

@konklone rather, I'd extend your comments even further. The doc's audience is squarely internal. Its context is an instruction to future internal staff on the procurement, legal, and technical teams of an agency.

Certainly doesn't preclude a stronger vision/mission statement of principles and re-architecting the doc thusly. In that format, the opening section becomes a more dedicated "procurement section" that falls lower in the doc and we gain a section that's more exec summary / statement of values like.

[rjmajma]

I should hope we don't have to instruct future staff of the virtue of open source software, but I get your point. I've forked the document and am in the process of writing something more akin to Eric's human-oriented policy description. I hope to have it up soon(ish. Sorry, wedding stuff).

[NoahKunin]

@rjmajma me neither, but quite literally, within a year at CFPB I had to refer back to the policy to win arguments. Crazy but true.

[NoahKunin]

memoryhole

[rjmajma]

Closing this, but remembering Noah's great point for a separate document that we are going to write shortly.