Why Autodesk

Why should Autodesk donate its software to, participate in and support the OSGeo community?

• MapGuide Open Source gets fixed faster; many eyes make bugs shallow and improvements are fed back to the proprietary offering. But a true open source project demands real effort at community participation to get this full effect.
• Increasingly many government contracts are mandating or encouraging open source software. This is a huge market for consultancy and support.
• Displacing patent/copyright infringement liability from an entity is a good reason to have code in a foundation, and important that foundation not be a "front"; it has to involve engagement with the broader community.
• "A rising tide raises all boats"; the webserver market is driven by oen big open source project. Availability of free of cost software and support for open standards will grow the market in many new ways.