This post has been cross posted on the Enterprise Advocates blog
A New Way Of Creating Research - Collaborative Input And Review
Some time early next week, we (i.e. Altimeter Group's Jeremiah Owyang and I) will be publishing a Customer Bill of Rights - Software-as-a-Service.  Through the generous input of 57 collaborators and organizations, this document will serve as a reference, checklist, and point of discussion with SaaS vendors for prospects and clients who have made the decision to begin a SaaS deployment.

Why A Customer Bill of Rights for SaaS?
SaaS deployments have entered the heart of the business and now deserve to be treated with all the rigor and due diligence of on-premise licensed software. Client - vendor relationships in SaaS are perpetual and it is imperative that these agreements provide a chance for a new slate. CIO's, CMO's, LOB execs, procurement managers, and other organizational leads should ensure that the mistakes they made in licensed software aren't blindly carried over. The SaaS Bill of Rights (BoR) provides a tool for clients and vendors to change the tenor of contract negotiations from subservient to equal partnership.  Though not all these rights may be provided by the SaaS vendors today, these rights represent the best practices in over 250 SaaS contracts and reflect the general spirit and intent of most SaaS vendor's executive management teams.
Thanks To Creative Commons For A Great Legal Platform For Collaboration
Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.  They provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.  We'll be setting up the license as a Creative Commons | Attribution| Shared Alike.  This means anyone can remix, tweak, and build upon this work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit us and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on this one will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.   If you get a moment, please donate to these guys!
Props To Collaboration And Great Ecosystem Input
The Customer Bill of Rights: Software-as-a-Service report could not have been produced without the generous input from these individual influencers and the following vendors who have shown a keen interest in transforming the client-vendor relationship. Please keep in mind, input into this document does not represent a complete endorsement of these rights in total by the individuals or vendors listed in this report.

The Thanks List: Star Influencer And Guru Inputs
Nenshad Bardoliwalla
Naomi Bloom, Bloom and Wallace
Kevin Dobbs, Montclair Advisors
Bob Evans, TechWeb
Dennis Howlett, Enterprise Irregulars
Phil Fersht, Horses For Sources
Christian Gherorghe
Paul Greenberg, The 56 Group
James Governor, Red Monk
Erin Kinikin
Esteban Kolsky
Amy Konary, IDC
Michael Krigsman, Asuret
Frank Scavo, Computer Economics
Josh Weinberger, CRM Magazine

The Thanks List: SaaS and Solution Vendor Input

Agresso
Appiro
Boomi
Blue Wolf
Cisco Systems
CODA
Demand Media
Epicor
Everest Software
Flexera
GetSatisfaction
HelpStream
IBM
Infor
Informatica
Infosys
Intacct
Intuit
Jive Software
KickApps
Lithium
M-Factor
Microsoft
Mzinga
NetSuite
Panaya Inc
Patni
Pervasive Software
RightNow Technologies
Rimini Street
Salesforce.com
SAP
Social Text
SoftBrands
SuccessFactors
Sugar CRM
Telligent
Tenrox
Ultimate Software
UserVoice
VMWare
Workday

Continue The Discussion On Linked IN
We've created a group that you can join now that will carry the conversation further.  Sign up now and stay tuned for when the report goes out.  Look for more Bill of Rights to come. Customer Bill of Rights


Your POV.
Want to be part of the collaborative research process?  Got ideas for topics that should be reports?  Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.