Is Branding the Future of Open Source?

Khalid writes "People are still looking for good open source business models. Here is a very interesting one I found in the JBoss site. You can become a certified JBoss Group Authorized Consultant in exchange of $5000. Which comprise training and tests, in return, you can use the JBoss brand, which is quite recognized now. While this may not apply to all open source projects, I think this is a best of both worlds deal. The source is open for everybody (JBoss is LGPL). JBoss get a very solid network of consultants which make the JBoss brand even more solid (human networks never die). Users can get support and service and the people at JBoss Group can get some money to pay the bill and keep improving JBoss to make it an even better product, a very virtuous cycle." $5000 is a lot of money, though, and that cost is per-year, not a lifetime membership.

Comments

Re:I think not

[tweek]

Sounds like you might be bitter that you would get passed up for a JBoss implementation over someone who has the JBoss certification.

This isn't a bad thing, mind you.

With opensource (and closed source too), companies need some sort of assurance. A certification from a particular project could be the assurance they need.

Anyone can say they know JBoss but with the certification you know they at least know enough to pass the certification.

Think about how many people you know who claim they have a skill on thier cv/resume when the truth is that someone at the previous company used it and they MIGHT have seen it on the desktop when they walked by.