"Procuring" Open Source

Open source has some real problems in the market, and most of them seem to reside between the ears of the people making corporate decisions on software. Really good article on procurement perceptions here from a Plone support company (what, Plone needs support? :)

The bit that Simon said that made the bulb go on in my head? He said that most companies set out on a procurement process to procure a software license. That is what software is to them: licenses. That is what they know, and that is how they think. If you’ve ever had the fun of dealing with the contracts/procurement department of a large company you will recognise this thinking. And so with that goal in mind, of course they end up succeeding in their quest to procure a license for software
–Matt Hamilton