Open source is an increasingly ubiquitous component of the information architectures of all kinds of organisation. As large users come to realise they have to rely on open architectures to keep IT costs down, familiarity with the open source world will pay dividends to far-sighted investors.

At present open source developers and large-scale IT users are sizing each other up, looking for suitable ways to work together and both benefit. The advantages to commercial organisations should be obvious: they include access to high-quality software, a skilled and often responsive maintenance team and reduced costs of acquisition. Open source developers are frequently in need of various kinds of support: travel expenses to attend conferences and sprints, computer equipment and internet hosting are frequently mentioned, and many project web sites now allow you to make donations by credit card or PayPal.

Some open source projects dominate their product space. Apache is still the dominant web server, and Samba is probably the leading Unix-to-Windows file- and print-sharing solution. Several commentators have observed that the software product space is becoming a commodity market in areas like this, where applications are well-defined and relatively easy to standardise.

Open source projects will benefit from more commercial support, and Holden Web encourages all those involved in commercial IT to consider how they can provide such support. One way is to organise a sprint.