The open source process has been used widely and the process of selecting, testing and incorporating source code contributions has been well documented and tested. A key component of this process is the formation of a core committee of active developers who will make decisions on what is included, when and why. You could call this committee a benevolent dictatorship but we, and most other open source projects, see this as the only way to manage the development process effectively. Initially the committee will be made up of the initial core developers and OpenVPMS stakeholders. As other developers and industry participants become involved in the project we see this evolving into elected technical steering and management committees involving this group as well as members of the user community.

No. Proprietary and open source developers will not need to pay subscription fees. Everyone who wants access to the source code will need to subscribe to OpenVPMS but developers subscriptions will be at no cost. We believe this is necessary to grow the developer network and encourage the delivery of new applications into the market. Our only stipulation is if a Veterinary Practice utilises an application based on the OpenVPMS open source software that they are a current subscriber. I.e. the onus is on the user of the application to adhere to the license conditions.

The short answer is yes. We see participation of existing software suppliers as an important milestone in our vision of delivering quality, open standards and choice to the market. We also see it as a positive for the software industry as they gain significant cost benefits (designing, development, testing) from the utilisation of core software components developed and tested by the open source community process. A major upside of their involvement will be their ongoing involvement in the development of the OpenVPMS kernel. As the OpenVPMS kernel will always be open source and licensed to ensure that any developments are contributed back to all subscribers, this will be a positive outcome for everyone. We will actively encourage other developers and business' to develop proprietary applications that utilise the OpenVPMS kernel. Our only stipulation will be that any Practice or business that utilises the openVPMS kernel pays their yearly subscription fee.