The Mule project: Not your average jackass

IT Managers Journal has a https://www.itmanagersjournal.com/feature/22422″>good article on the Mule project, Ross Mason’s brainchild and the fuel behind Ross and Dave’s MuleSource. The article traces the history of Mule’s beginning. As with Ubuntu’s Launchpad project, it’s fascinating to see all the itches that get scratched…while doing something completely different.

In 2000, Mason was working on a large-scale project for a bank. He found himself growing tired of the endless repetitive coding tasks that were necessary to tie disparate applications together for in-house ESBs, calling it “donkey work.” Years later, he discovered open source software while doing some work for another company, and decided he could make an open source ESB that would solve the repetition problem for good.

I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that some of the most innovative software that will be developed over the next few years will initially be considered “donkey work” and ancillary to the work of open source projects.

As for Mule and open source…well, it’s a match made in heaven:

Mason realized early on that the only way to create the ESB product he really wanted was to make it open source. “It just made sense,” he says. “When you talk about application integration, everyone’s problem is slightly different. I could never write all the code necessary to solve everyone’s problems.” But with a community surrounding the project, there would be enough synergy to make the difference. “With more people involved, I could solve the problems. They could write the code for me.”

Indeed. This is one of the reasons that EAI is an absolutely perfect match for open source.

MuleSource is kicking tail (pun intended) right now. It’s the right sort of project at the right time.