Ontopia Open Source FAQ

Why are you open sourcing Ontopia?

Bouvet wants to contribute to increased use of Topic Maps in Norway by open sourcing the Ontopia software. In Norway the government is actively promoting the use of open source software in the public sector, and so open sourcing the software opens a number of interesting possibilities for Bouvet.

Since Bouvet is a Norwegian company, we also feel that we can best support the Topic Maps community and the needs of our international customers by open sourcing the software.

Which parts of the OKS will you release?

We are releasing the entire product. Everything that is in the released commercial software will be in the open sourced version.

Which license model will you use?

This is not yet decided. This is one question on which we invite community input, and which we intend to discuss at the kick-off meeting on May 28th. If you have opinions about this, please let us know!

Will there be a commercial license?

Some open source projects have a dual license model where one version of the product is open source and another version is a for-pay commerical version, often with more features. Ontopia is not going to have such a model. That is, Bouvet is not going to sell commercial Ontopia licenses. Third parties may do so if they wish.

Do you intend Ontopia to become a community project?

Yes, very much so! In fact, building an active community around Ontopia is one of Bouvet's main goals in open sourcing the software. So if you are interested in participating in any capacity, please get in touch, and please come to the kick-off meeting on the 28th.

Where are you going to host the software?

We haven't decided yet. Google Code, SourceForge, Sun's Kenai site, and using Ontopia.net are all proposals that have been put forward. We are currently evaluating all these against our needs, but this is a question we would very much like community input to. So please let us know what you think, for example at the kick-off meeting on May 28th

Will Bouvet continue to provide Ontopia support contracts?

Yes, we will continue to sell support contracts for the Ontopia software.

However, open sourcing the software means that the actual terms in the contracts will have to change to take this into account. We will also need to rethink the pricing model. It is currently tied to the price of the software licenses supported, but as we will not sell licenses in the future this will no longer work.

The exact terms and pricing are not determined yet. If you have questions or concerns about this, please write to larsga@ontopia.net.

What language(s) is Ontopia written in?

Nearly all of the software is written in pure Java. However, the web applications are written using Java Server Pages, except the new Ontopoly version, which is based on the Wicket framework. The build system is based on Ant, and there are a few Python scripts in the build system as well.

Will the OKS Samplers continue to expire?

No. In fact, OKS Samplers will disappear, and what you download for free will be OKS Enterprise (with many features not in OKS Samplers) with no limitations.

Why haven't you answered my question?

Maybe because nobody's asked us yet? If you have a question that's not answered here, please write to larsga@ontopia.net.