One of my former colleagues sent me a link to ComputerWorld’s recent article entitled, “EMC opens Documentum up to software vendors”. Pretty catchy, huh? You might think the leading proprietary ECM vendor has seen the light. Of course you’d be wrong. The article is actually about Documentum’s “Embedded Documentum” OEM offering. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being an over-sensitive open source zealot, but there’s nothing open about Documentum or its embedded offering.

And while I’m on the topic, if I were a software vendor, what would make me want to embed a proprietary offering like Documentum within my software? Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to use something standards-based and open? No OEM license to worry about. Easier to deal with in general. Low or no switching costs if it doesn’t work out. Access to all source code in case I need to make some tweaks. Seems like a no-brainer. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of it.