I feel like the balance between being "open" in some ways and "closed" in
others is part of the ongoing discussion and self-reflection that happens
in an open organization. We're constantly coming up to the boundaries and
having debates about what is the right thing to do in a given situation.
The tension for us is usually around being totally open, transparent and
inclusive with the community of users who are not associates of Red Hat,
while also maintaining a competitive/profitable business model. The key is
having people at all levels in the organization willing to openly discuss
the trade offs and influence each other.

There isn't a firm rule or guideline, more of a litmus test or set of
guiding principles

On Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 7:09 AM, Brook Manville <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Ron, thanks for that comment. I think you've put your finger on an
> important issue/criterion for "open"--the interface with the "external"
> community. A critical question is how does an open organization be both
> "open" to the world (especially like-minded communities, e.g. Linux) and
> "closed" at the same time (i.e. preserving certain norms and protocols for
> its members). I tried to get at this a bit in one of my Forbes posts, "Red
> Hat's Open-ish" organization ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/
> brookmanville/2016/01/28/red-hat-redux-the-open-ish-
> organization/#3f634223480e <http://goog_330869967/> ), but I think
> there's a lot more thinking that's needed to explore the point. Any
> thoughts from others?
>
> cheers
>
> On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 8:50 PM, Ronald McFarland <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> For me personally, an "open" organization (not to be confused with open
>> sourcing) has always been a management system at the front-line,
>> peer-to-peer level that approaches the external community as well.  My
>> articles on trust, decision-making, collaboration have always been targeted
>> toward that group.  My CAVE article was to help that group evaluate the
>> outside community as to who would be helpful in a peer-to-peer open
>> organization team.
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Ron
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 7:33 AM, Brook Manville <[email protected]
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Yes agree-- but if at some point we see enough examples there should be
>>> some kind of emerging definition, no?
>>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 3:13 PM Bryan Behrenshausen <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> > Bryan, thanks--some thought provoking comments! Maybe it's time to
>>>> take another run at defining "open"--updating the concept in light of
>>>> some of these conversations, and your several points? Do all our
>>>> Ambassadors hold today to a common definition? (Could be buried in some
>>>> other thoughtful email string that I missed--if so, mea culpa).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Eekers. That's a tall order indeed. I'll let others weigh in to
>>>> decide whether that's something we wish to tackle. In the meantime, I'll
>>>> just say that I find "defining" open much less interesting and useful
>>>> than tracing/tracking how all sorts of "kinds" of openness (different
>>>> definitions and deployments, if you will) get put to work in everyday
>>>> discussions and decisions. Maybe put a bit more simply: I'm more
>>>> interested in how and why different groups/actors define "open" in the
>>>> way(s) they do, and what they hope to accomplish and/or authorize by
>>>> doing so.
>>>>
>>>> BB
>>>>
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>
>
> --
> *Brook Manville*
> *Principal, Brook Manville LLC*
>
> *http://www.brookmanville.com/ <http://www.brookmanville.com/>*
> *Twitter* <https://twitter.com/>
> *@brookmanville*
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