OwnCloud Founder Resigns

Frank Karlitschek, the founder and CTO of ownCloud has resigned from the company that he founded some four years ago. He resigned due to conflicts between the interests of the company and the interests of the ownCloud community.

According to Karlitschek, the company failed to recognize the contributions and achievements of the ownCloud community. He said that the company has “a tendency to control the work too closely and discuss things internally.”

Announcing his resignation, Karlitschek wrote in a blog post, “I thought a lot about this situation. Without sharing too much, there are some moral questions popping up for me. Who owns the community? Who owns ownCloud itself? And what matters more, short-term money or long-term responsibility and growth? Is ownCloud just another company, or do we also have to answer to the hundreds of volunteers who contribute and make it what it is today? These questions brought me to the very tough decisions: I have decided to leave my own company today. Yes, I handed in my resignation and will no longer work for ownCloud, Inc.”

Karlitschek will continue to lead the open source ownCloud project, as long as the community allows him to do so. The conflict between the community and the company creates the possibility for an ownCloud fork.