Andy Updegrove, a lawyer and founder of ConsortiumInfo.org, says Microsoft has created with CodePlex a rigid foundation that has almost no wiggle room and a poorly crafted governance structure that concentrates authority at the top and leaves little power to others that might join the foundation.

The CodePlex foundation, funded with $1 million from Microsoft, includes four Microsoft employees among the six-person Board of Directors. Microsoft funded and helped found this foundation during the same week in which it was revealed that they were allegedly trying to unload anti-Linux patents.

“Microsoft has to try harder to convince people its heart is in the right place because so often it hasn’t been there [with open source],” says Updegrove. “Microsoft can’t control [the foundation].”

So it is time for you to be the judge – Do you think that CodePlex will be a valuable asset to the Open Source community?