Mixing open source and business

How would your employer feel if you spent between 10 and 20 percent of your time working on extracurricular open-source projects?

If you're consulting company Optaros, you'd feel just fine about that. In fact, it's company policy.

Optaros is different than most consulting and systems integration outfits in that the venture-backed firm builds custom applications using open-source software.

That requires the company, which launched at the beginning of this year, to have explicit intellectual property policies and clear rules of engagement regarding open source projects, said company vice president Stephen Walli, who authored the policy, in a blog posting on Wednesday.

"We recognize that free and open source software forms the building blocks of the solutions Optaros develops for our clients. So we need to give back," Walli wrote.

The company hopes to encourage other vendors and corporate customers to adopt similar policies. That would cut down on the legal risk enterprise developers take on when contributing to open-source projects.

So in the spirit of open source, Optaros encourages its consultants to spend 10 percent of their time on open source projects.

But in the spirit of making money, Optaros puts a limit on "volunteer" work: keep it to under 20 percent.