As I mentioned in an earlier post the week started for me with Participate08, an open discussion about several aspects of the open source industry as it exists today. The discussion covered several dimensions including hybrid business models, community inclusion, motivations for involvement and a discussion around intellectual property.

The conversation itself has been well documented by others, here is an example from Phil Robb and another from Zack Urlocker, so I won’t go into any depth around that. A quick web search will find you a few more along with a diverse set of personal opinions on the day.

What I would like to do is think a little about a single statement that was made by one of the panelists during the afternoon conversation.

The discussion turned to Microsoft’s relationship with OSS community, touching on our evolving strategy to increase our general level of involvement with the community. As might be expected a couple of predictable comments were then made about past statements made by various people from Microsoft about Open Source.

One of the panelists then talked a little about what it takes to bring a new member into a community project and some of the phases that a lot of organizations go through as they learn how to work with the wider open source community. They talked about a common pattern of kicking new members for a little while, then eventually moving on into a mode of teaching the new member more about the community and the most effective way to participate.

I’ve talked in the past about the growing number of employees within the company who are starting to recognize the opportunity that the open source world presents for Microsoft, and I think the statement made by the panelist applies well to those folks.

Speaking from a personal point of view I’m keen to learn, indeed that is exactly why I’m here in Portland this week and it’s why I have worked hard on some of the relationships I have with OSS leaders in Asia.

The kicking is pretty unproductive, the teaching and learning has a lot more potential…