Many companies encourage the developers they employ to contribute to open source projects, but Rackspace has just gone a step further than most. The cloud computing company announced that its staffers are allowed to “contribute to a project that is directly competitive with Rackspace.” According to Rackspace VP Van Lindberg, the company believes that “this new policy will drive business opportunities for Rackspace and build leadership and expertise in our Rackers, also forcing us to focus on the services we pride ourselves on delivering.”
Still, employees that do contribute to competing projects are expected to do so outside of business hours. Lindberg adds, “If they wish to contribute during work hours they must obtain approval from their manager.”
