Branding Policy

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There is an on-going discussion, in order to establish how Companies, Individuals are allowed to brand themselves within Adempiere. At this time it is not yet clear whether companies/individuals are even allowed to have a minimum amount of branding.

This article does not represent the views of the community at large. It reflects my personal opinion on the subject matter.

I have already written on Adempiere as a framework, and talked about it during the Adempiere conference in Berlin. My views is for Adempiere to really differentiates itself from other ERPs is to open the gates to verticals. I consider Adempiere, more as an operating system rather than a program. I see Adempiere, as something like firefox or facebook. These applications encourage plug-ins, and extensions to make their product even more attractive. I believe that this could be the differentiating factor between Adempiere and the different ERPs.

We were previous Compiere partners and the reason we jumped ship, was because we perceived Adempiere as this truly innovative project. Where there was no company that owned the Adempiere project. Certainly we wouldn't like the same to happen to Adempiere project. Instead what I would really like to see, is competition within verticals, and creation of new verticals project within Adempiere. Some will fail and some will succeed. At the end of the day we should be left with this amazing product.

Encourage Branding to welcome more contributions: Companies or individuals invest their time or money in developing/testing a product/enhancement. In open source, all codes are given in exchange for branding, take away the branding and there will be little economic rational for certain companies to contribute. I believe branding should be done on the product itself. Not many people will go on the Adempiere website. There are far more users that actually see the product than the website. People should get access to the contributors more easily. Even companies that pay for some sponsored development and not only the developers should get branding for the work.

I will first address some fears people have about branding. 1) Companies by contributing massively, takes over Adempiere This can not happen if there are clear rules about branding

2) Companies get more credits than it deserves by taking the credits of others works This should not happen, in this case, the problem is not too much branding but a lack of it. I believe not enough credits are given to developers, testers, functional analysts. I would propose a credit window within the Adempiere application. Also just like the help button in every window, a contributor window. This way credits may be attributed fairly.

3) Adempiere becomes a marketing billboard. firefox is a marketing billboard, facebook is, a football shirt is. However I don't think this is something bad, on the contrary. Imagine a football shirt without any sponsorships, first that would mean a huge loss of revenue and it won't necessary look good. It just must be done properly.

4) Users get confused by the amount of brands within Adempiere. Users get to learn brands they like, and they know what it can do for them. It is up to the brand to give the proper meaning to their name.

5) Copyright Logos can cause legal issues Not if the company signs off reasonable conditions on how the logo can be used, removed and re-distributed.

I have included some pictures of how controlled branding can possibly be done in Adempiere.

Brand0.jpg Brand1.jpg Brand2.jpg