Things are always pretty crazy around here. I write this blog in the hope that other small companies in general and open-source ones in particular might recognize a kindred soul, or perhaps get a tip or two that may help them in their business. I’m still looking for tips on work/life balance myself, because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

The key, obviously, is to set priorities. I think that’s true of any business, but I have no problem in stating the obvious. Since the goal of OpenNMS is to become the de facto enterprise management framework, our priorities must be set to help us realize that goal.

I have said from the beginning that the key to the success of the OpenNMS Project will be its community. That’s why it’s run by the OGP and not the OpenNMS Group, and why 100% of the OpenNMS code is free. That may not be the quickest way for me to make a whole bunch of money, but in the long term this is the best way to reach our goal, and in the end the money should follow.

Some would say as the CEO of an open source company, I should do things like hang out with all the “open source gurus” in San Francisco at conferences. Well, I guess I suck at being the CEO, because I think we should be focusing on the next crop of open source gurus.

Which is why I am so excited about the involvement of OpenNMS in the Google Summer of Code project. A lot of credit goes to Ben Reed for doing most of the legwork to get us considered, and most of the OGP has volunteered to be mentors.

This is our first year as a participant, and we hope to do some great things as well as interest more people in becoming involved with OpenNMS. It’s humbling to be in such great company as the other GSOC projects, and we plan to make the most of it.

We’ll be using the opennms-devel mailing list to coordinate once we get underway, and of course there is a wiki page about it as well.