IBM faces a collective action problem: It's open source its $ 40 million application platform and to convince other companies to contribute. Explores the events that led to the decision of IBM, to make the Eclipse platform is available as an open source project. In 1998, Lee Nackman, director of architecture and application integration middleware of IBM Software, initiates the development of a software platform that enables IBM products to offer the best compatibility and overall appearance. In the years that followed, Lee faces the challenge of getting the platform adopted by IBM and the need to carefully manage its evolution. Eclipse platform works and grows, but IBM would like to create an ecosystem complementary applications developed by independent software vendors (ISV). In 2001, IBM forms consortium Eclipse, Eclipse platform and makes available as a software and open source software. Despite the popularity of the platform Eclipse, independent software vendors have not yet decided to put complementary applications and actively contribute back to the platform. Market analysts believe that this project is really open source. Lee and his colleagues are trying to decide whether or not open source strategy was the right choice. In addition, as IBM alleviate concerns of independent developers and encourage them to participate? "Hide
by Siobhan O'Mahony, Fernando Cela Diaz, Evan Mamas Source: Harvard Business School 19 pages. Publication Date: December 16, 2005. Prod. #: 906007-PDF-ENG
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