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January 26, 2005
Demand driven itch scratching
For a while now, Doc Searls has been speaking about DIY-IT or how the demand side is supplying itself. One industry has been demand driven ever since it was started - Open Source. In publications on Open Source you don't see the term "demand driven" being used often - but you'll see a lot of talk about "itch scratching". In fact it's one of the first answers you'll probably get if you ask in an Open Source project why a particular function is missing - "If you have that itch - then scratch it". When you talk to large corporations about a particular Open Source project you often find yourself in the assumed role of the salesperson.
Customers will look at you and ask why a particular function is as it is - or missing - and you find yourself defending the Open Source project as if it were a product your company is trying to sell. This is one of the reasons we try and emphasize the itch scratching philosophy behind Open Source as often and as early as we can in talks to corporations. You have to remember that this is still a very alien world to many companies. People who are used to banging on the table and demanding a certain function be implemented "or else" now find themselves being told to scratch their itch themselves. "It's Open Source - if you want something changed - then go ahead and fix it".
Posted by Matthew at January 26, 2005 08:09 AM