Linux News: Community: GroundWork Cuts Ribbon on MonitoringForge

GroundWork Cuts Ribbon on MonitoringForge

By Erika Morphy
LinuxInsider
09/16/09 4:00 AM PT

There's a new clearinghouse for open source projects and systems: MonitoringForge. The site aims to corral monitoring and network management tools in one place, facilitate the exchange of information and ideas, foster collaboration and development, and build a community that rewards participation.

GroundWork Open Source, a provider of commercial open source systems and network management software, has launched MonitoringForge, a hub for IT administrators and developers interested in open source monitoring tools.

The new site aims to encompass the monitoring space as a whole, as opposed to focusing on specific products or applications, said Tara Spalding, vice president of marketing at GroundWork Open Source.

It is the first open source portal to focus on monitoring, she told LinuxInsider.

Demand for a community around open source monitoring was apparent when the beta site launched on Tuesday, said Spaulding. In the first day, there were more than 100 sign-ups and two inquiries about participation on the advisory board.

Community Goals

MonitoringForge launched with more than 1,700 open source projects and plug-ins -- many of which link back to existing community and developer sites. Eventually, it plans to have community-based governance, and is currently assembling an advisory board to oversee project presentation and participation issues.

The more participation, the better it is for users seeking more information about open source monitoring, Spaulding said.

Among the operations MonitoringForge is designed to facilitate:

package management that supports a variety of iterations;
subversion tracking and code submission;
open source license management;
project review and user rankings;
meta-tagging for identification;
Q&A, roadmap and bug tracking to connect user feedback directly to developers;
application previewing via a screenshot gallery;
sharing best practices through wikis, documentation, newsfeeds and forums; and
establishing project-based security.

Product Pull

Central sites like MonitoringForge are useful places to find information, said Bernard Golden, founder of HyperStratus and author of Succeeding With Open Source.

"They provide good, high-level evaluations for IT administrators that have been using one platform -- say, Tivoli -- and have decided they want to investigate the alternatives," Golden told LinuxInsider.

"The challenge is that most of these sites want to become a focal point [for a category] -- but then find that their energy is being spent on specific products," commented Golden, "and the site drifts into something that is more product-focused."

Next Article in Community

The Curious Case of the OIN Patent Coup
September 14, 2009

Microsoft has launched CodePlex, a new foundation whose purpose is to bridge the FOSS and commercial software worlds. The initiative is being taken with several tons of salt in the FOSS community, considering Redmond's recent maneuvers regarding Linux patents. Was it just getting rid of property it didn't intend to develop? Or was it hoping patent trolls would wreak a little havoc?

More by Erika Morphy

Google Bends a Little Toward Nexus One Customers
February 09, 2010

Google appears to be taking some customer objections to the Nexus One seriously, although its overtures may not be enough to warm customers to its new business model. For one thing, it has reduced the fee it would charge for early termination to $150, but customers would have to pay T-Mobile an ETF as well. It has also set up a direct support line for orders -- but not for tech support.

Does 'Nimble' Pricing Suggest iPad Won't Move?
February 09, 2010

Indications that Apple may lower the price of its new iPad have surfaced -- even though its not yet available for sale -- suggesting that the company may not be certain it hit the sweet spot for consumers. One big inhibitor for a lot of prospective buyers is the extra monthly charge for WiFi and 3G connectivity.

Report: iPad Will Propel Tablets Into Mainstream Use
February 08, 2010

Will Apple's iPad do for tablets what its iPod did for MP3 players? Quite possibly. The tablet market will grow quickly on the heels of the iPad's release, according to In-Stat, which forecasts 50 million of the devices will ship in 2014. Others are less optimistic, though. Notably, consumer interest in buying an iPad did not increase as a result of the product's unveiling, according to a Retrevo survey.

[Search More...]