Commercial Open Source Software

Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO, talking about OpenOffice.org said:

The financial holy grail is actually the office productivity suite … when you look at structures of companies there is a lot of profitability in those product sets from the competition.

Novell CEO talked about the Hula project, a real-time collaboration productin alpha development stage:

Real-time collaboration between organisations is going to become more important and that is going to be more difficult with all of the older products in the market — Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes etc.

In Hula there is so much more real-time stuff coming. This is a young, evolving market at this point and a lot of the pieces are going to move around for the next couple of years before we see it shake out.

Hovsepian defined also Novell as a “custodian to the community and to the commercial customers”.

Read the full article, a four part video is included.

The Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) eventually debuted at LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit, as previously mentioned. Ten leading companies announced to join the OSA consortium dedicated to driving adoption of comprehensive open source business solutions.

Founding members include Adaptive Planning, Centric CRM, CollabNet, EnterpriseDB, Hyperic, JasperSoft, Openbravo, SourceForge.net®, SpikeSource and Talend.

Barry Klawans, OSA spokesperson and CTO at JasperSoft, stated:

We’re inviting all companies developing and using open source software to work together and ensure the availability of turnkey, enterprise-ready solution suites faster and at a fraction of the cost of traditional proprietary alternatives.

While we don’t know yet if this last technological club will eventually work, Stephen Walli expressed some concerns:

I had a little experience with CentricCRM pretending to be an open source company a year ago while I was still at Optaros. I read their license then, and it hasn’t changed. Here’s how it starts:

You may use, copy, modify, and make derivative works from the code for internal use only.

You may not redistribute the code, and you may not sublicense copies or derivatives of the code, either as software or as a service.

This is of course the community version of their “open source” solution.

False positive are dangerous, and I hope OSA will soon push its members to adopt a clear strategy, calling themselves open source companies only if appropriate.

Technorati Tags: Open Solutions Alliance, OSA, Centric CRM

“The Internet is for Everyone” is the title of a quite famous RFC written almost five years ago by Vint Cerf, one of the “founding fathers” of the Internet. RFC 3271 doesn’t specify any Internet standard, but is a sort of global memo to remember us that we need to demand Internet freedom. Cerf was in his closing saying:

Internet IS for everyone - but it won’t be unless WE make it so.

On the 13th of February Mitchell Baker , President of the Mozilla Corporation, announced on her blog the availability of the Mozilla manifesto, which led me somehow back to the forementioned Internet for Everyone RFC.

From her own post the Mozilla Manifesto’s goals:

1. articulate a vision for the Internet that Mozilla participants want the Mozilla Foundation to pursue;
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2. speak to people whether or not they have a technical background;
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3. make Mozilla contributors proud of what we’re doing and motivate us to continue; and
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4. provide a framework for other people to advance this vision of the Internet.

Here the Mozilla Manifesto’s principles:

1. The Internet is an integral part of modern life - a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.
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2. The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
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3. The Internet should enrich the lives of individual human beings.
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4. Individuals’ security on the Internet is fundamental and cannot be treated as optional.
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5. Individuals must have the ability to shape their own experiences on the Internet.
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6. The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.
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7. Free and open source software promotes the development of the Internet as a public resource.
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8. Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability, and trust.
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9. Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial goals and public benefit is critical.
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10. Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the Internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment.

I like the idea that the Mozilla project is more than simply releasing new versions of Firefox, and while I’m not involved in the Mozilla project I’m really willing to help.

Benjamin Mako Hill, a known Debian GNU/Linux developer, and Erik Möller, formerly Chief Research Officer at Wikimedia Foundation and currently Wikipedia author, almost one year ago joined to write a Free Content and Expression Definition. Two days ago a diverse group of writers released the first version of the “Definition of Free Cultural Works.”

Benjamin, started thinking about the issue almost two years ago, explaining that unlike Free Software, Creative Commons in his opinion failed to set any standard of freedom. Then he argued that:

Creative Commons and the free culture movement were struggling to build a cohesive freedom movement in the way that free and open source software had succeeded in doing by never stopping to define the ground rules of the commons movement.

I argued that Free Software built a movement around calls for essential freedoms and against the actions of software producers who failed to live up to this standard. On the other hand, Creative Commons has argued for “some rights reserved” but never explained which rights were unreservable. In the process, they’ve done the invaluable service of creating a stable of powerful, internationalized licenses. But they failed to build the type social movement that some of us wanted. While this was never their goal, it left some people unsatisfied.

He later made it more clear with a second version:

Whether in unison or cooperating in separate groups, it is time for those those of us that feel strongly about freedom to discuss, decide, and move forward with our own free information movement built upon a standard of freedom. When we have defined free information in terms of essential freedoms, a subset of Creative Commons works and a subset of Creative Commons licenses will provide tools and texts through which a social movement can be built.

Then Larry Lessig introduced him to Erik Möller, who was planning on launching the same project, and from theit collaboration came up the Free Content and Expression Definition and, just few days ago along with other the release 1.0 of the Definition of Free Cultural Works.

Alessandro Rubini, one of the most famous Italian hackers and representative person in the free software arena, yesterday answered few questions which get some local attention. Today I’m reporting the last of the two part interview.

How are you targeting businesses? Since you work alone, how do you cope with extra work?

Well, I actually don’t hunt for work. It’s usually the company that finds me. When a company looks for gnu/linux embedded expertise, they either go straigth to Montavista or they look around. If they look, they usually end up calling someone nearby. My recent clients are usually from my area, and that’s good: it means farther companies find other consultants (I know for sure they do). I’m not alone in my field, and demand is growing.

In this expanding working environment, I tend to cooperate with other consultants. We are actually mates rather than competitors, and it’s common for us to deal with overloads by getting help from a colleague, with due signing of NDA’s when the client requires it (not often, in fact). It’s not a nation-wide network, though. Strict cooperation is within a handful of people, but we heard about a number of others. So we can at least suggest other names to call when we can’t deal with the task at hand.

Alessandro’s network is the lightest form of association I can think of, a simple web page collecting people under the GNU Devide Driver umbrella. I’m happy to hear they take advantage of cooperation and I guess they don’t need to spend time and effort to write partnership agreements. It is a ring of trust, they all behave correctly and they naturally tend to do so.

On the other hand their approach doesn’t scale, they don’t share commercial costs and they are bound to spend time to commercialize themselves. They choose freedom, even in this respect.

Do you think Linux-embedded markets itself effectively to businesses?

It’s the other way round: many companies in the electronic and telecommunication area are seriously switching to embedded GNU/Linux.

Actually, it’s usually a little GNU and a lot of Linux (the kernel), but the reason they do that is usually the GNU GPL (freedom from lock-ups, more than cost issues).

Most of those companies just want to master the subject matter, or ask external help for the first project but work to build internal expertise meanwhile. I feel we consultants cover a very small fraction of overall investments in embedded GNU/Linux. But sometimes a company finds itself on strict deadlines and the internal resource reveal scarse; so they unspectedly have a tough problem for someone skilled to solve.

My suggestion, if any, to people willing to work in this field is to get expert in some field and publish the code they can contribute. This is the best way to get credits. Offering to help an established company (or consultant) nearby is a good bet nonetheless.
It’s quite difficult for us to find the right people, in a world where everyone claims to be a computer expert — so it’s easier for the right people to find us.

Alessandro feels that consultants cover only a tiny fraction of overall investments in embedded GNU/Linux, as he says his customers ask help just for the first project, but then they tend to internalize knowledge.

I suspect that many vertical markets are doing that nowadays, it’s definitely a resource marketing inefficiency, likely due to a sort of market failure occuring with imperfect knowledge.

How did your job changed during the last five years, and how will it change in the next five?

Things are getting more complex. As CPU power increases, companies want to put more stuff in it: graphic interfaces, video streaming and the like, even in small ARM or PPC devices. There’s less “substance” (industrial automation) and more “appearance” (cool gadgets), at least as an overall ratio. I don’t expect this trend to stop, and I’ll personally try to stick to “substance” problems as much as possible.

On a less technical level, it didn’t change a lot over time. There’s more work globally, as companies get more accustomed to free software ideas, but the basic points dind’t change much: they want to build their own expertise while delegating the first prototypes, and they come back when an unexpected problem occurs. Again, nothing disruptive is happening, it’s just the usual knowledge-related business practice. Which is a good achievement in itself, in my opinion.

Thank you very much Alessandro, you raised many important issues, I really wish you happy hacking, please keep writing books and educating new GNU developers!

Alessandro Rubini is one of the most famous Italian hackers, he installed is first GNU/Linux distro just after getting his degree as an electronic engineer. He received a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Pavia, but he left the University because he didn’t want to write papers. He currently works as freelancer, he has several years of experience with writing device drivers for frame grabbers and other industrial devices, he also writes articles and books.
For years he has been the strongest Free Software Italian advocate, and while he is not anymore involved with FSF Europe activities, he is still the most representative person in the Italian free software arena. I asked Alessandro to answer few questions about his job and about free software development, today I’m reporting his first answers, quite surprising indeed.

How did you start getting working with GNU/Linux?

It was 1994. I was enjoying Unix systems and free software at the University, so I started looking for something with pipes, gawk and gcc for my home computer. So I got that strange 0.99.14 thing in a pile of floppies. After that, I went shopping for something supported by that operating system, and upgraded the ZX-Spectrum.

Having source code handy and being able to talk with the authors was great, both technically and socially. And it was a simple system back then, easily learned and hacked, although not as modularized and clean as it is now. I speak of the kernel, obviously, not about the GUI or similar things.

How did it happen to you to write a book about Linux Drivers? Was it helpful to get new customers?

I am an electronic engineer. Computers are tools that simplify moving physical things. I wanted to build my hardware and drive it. And I tend to teach others what I enjoy to do. So I began writing for Linux Journal, and then the editor put me in touch with the publishing house. They were looking for that kind of expertise. So I signed my contract and spent one full-time year on the text. No, it is not the taskI’ve been built for.

Yes, it is helpful. At first I worked as a consultant for University deparments - I have a pair of acquisition systems running since then - then new clients found me on the Net, partly because of the packages I published, partly because of the book. Unfrotunately, publishing software takes a lot of time, so now I publish less.

Do you enjoy your daily work? Do you work at home? What would you like to change about it?

Yes, I find my work quite an interesting one. I work at home and in my own office, out of reach of my babies, where they wouldn’t pull cables and push buttons. Sometimes I also work in a University lab.

The good point in self-employment is that you can manage your time. So you can take your days off when you need it. And your nights on, when the clients need it.

The good point in working with free software is that you always with people more than with computers. Not only when teaching or helping people in solving problems, but also when studying new problems or finghting for your own bugs: the authors’ ingenuity, their choices and their preferences are always apparent throughout the code. Technology is created and dominated by people: it’s a matter of ideas and intelligence, and it’s great to feel and discover it every day.

Alessandro’s attitude respect the main features of hacker ethic as described by Pekka Himanen in his Hacker Ethic: he has an passionate attitude to his job, and he likes to realize himself and his abilities. He also somehow enjoys to share his knowledge, but you need to read what he thinks about “tribes” to understand how much does he fit the Himanen model.

What are the advantages of the community when it comes to product development?

Well, I think the community doesn’t exist. There is no community as such, in my opinion, only a bunch of random hackers working on random stuff.

No, I don’t deny the importance of people, as I said above. But I don’t feel a “community” is there: there is no common view or common goal, not even a common language. There are small groups that feel they are a community, but there isn’t such a thing as “the” community.

Free software is like knowledge: it evolves and increases over time, slowly but steadily. Being involved in knowledge-production is difficult and it takes time.
So product development should happen outside of such involvment, while respecting copyright and all the relevant licenses. The technical expertise out there is a great help, but most information found on the net is wrong or subtly incorrect. For some problems you need to ask the authors, on the relevant mailing lists for the specific project, but this is not the community, is individual people.

So the advantages of distributed development is that knowledge advances over time without being controlled by a person or a company. Not unlikely what happens in other fields. It may look strange, but that’s only because software development used not to work as it should (and as everything else develops).

Alessandro couldn’t be any clearer about what he thinks about open source communities, in his opinion product development is definitely not related to community participation. In his opinion there is no such thing like the symbiotic approach, I guess because of the trade-off between efficiency and effectiveness. Corporates want to respect milestones, while communities are more interested in doing it right, when feasible.
On the other hand the states that distributed - and not coordinated - development turns in knowledge advance over time without being controlled by a single entity.

That’s the Freedom Alessandro talks about.

(To be continued tomorrow)

Yesterday SpikeSource and Canonical announced that SpikeSource will certify its business-ready open-source applications for Ubuntu and deliver support for Ubuntu through its channel of solution providers.

Kim Polese, CEO of SpikeSource, commented:

The popularity of Ubuntu combined with Canonical’s commitment to Open Source development, makes it a perfect partner for SpikeSource, Ubuntu users can now benefit from the same open source innovation from their business applications as they do from their operating system.

Canonical recently announced another important technological partnership with Linspire, to integrate with each other’s Linux distributions. An advisor from market researcher Illuminata, said:

[..] as Linux and Linux distributions mature, proliferation of distros becomes much less interesting. This seems a case of essentially combining a couple of distributions to try and achieve a critical mass of interesting, differentiating features — something that’s increasingly difficult to do. I don’t see this becoming another important enterprise distro, but it will help both of these to remain a viable ‘Tier 2′ distribution.

Canonical is definitely becoming a serious challenger.

The Southern California Linux Exposition yesterday guested a mini-conference on women in the free/open source software community.

Stormy Peters, formerly founder and manager of the Open Source Program Office at HP, co-founder of the non-profit GNOME Foundation, and now working at OpenLogic, said that women are less than 2% of open source software developers, explained that:

while indeed a minority of information technology workers were women (roughly 20%), an even more staggering minority — to the tune of 1.5% — of free software contributors were women. The reasons given for this disparity were many and mostly related to cultural roles and expectations for women in the western world. “Alpha dog” behavior, posturing, backbiting, and mysogyny were listed as common and unfortunate social habits among free software programmers, and throughout the day the issue of how to deal with this behavior was approached from several different angles.

Jean T. Anderson, an IBM employee and an Apache Derby project comitter and the Apache DB Project PMC Chair, stated that Apache is not about code, but about community. She outlined the most significant barriers to female free/open source software participation:

• Women frequently don’t know how to get started with a project.
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• They are afraid of looking stupid.
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• They don’t want to be flamed on the public mailing lists or IRC.
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• The feel that they do not speak English well enough to participate.
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• They are uncomfortable with publicly accessible and archived email lists.
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• They are not comfortable “selling” their ideas to the group.
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• Sexist jokes and demeaning comments create a negative atmosphere for women.

The agenda wasn’t fully formed one month ago, but  it’s clear that this mini-conference was a success, and I invite you to read more about it.

The Open Solutions Alliance (OSA), is a new advocacy group debuting next February 15 at LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit in New York.

OSA exhibitor info says:

The Open Solutions Alliance consists of leading companies dedicated to making enterprise-class open source software solutions work together. We help customers put open source solutions to work by enabling application integration, certifying quality solutions, and promoting cooperation among open source developers. Membership is open to organizations providing high-quality, business-ready open source solutions.

OSA’s speech, scheduled on the 15th of February is the following:

Open Solutions Alliance forms to promote Interoperability between Open Source Solutions.

OSA founders are not giving details yet about members’ names, but an anonymous interviewee reported that at least 10 companies have already signed up. OSA insider told Linux.com that:

[the group will be] focusing on business use of open source apps. Other, earlier open source advocacy groups have concentrated on legal and licensing matters, and that even the ones that have done direct open source advocacy have mainly worked with open source infrastructure, like Linux and Apache, rather than open source applications.

OSA’s focus seems to be addressing the third challenge, trying to offer the inter-applications interoperability that open source products are lacking of.

In other words, OSA hopes to become a national — possibly even worldwide — trade association for commercial open source vendors, similar in many ways to the trade associations that serve proprietary software vendors.

Will this last technological club work, eventually?

Marc Fleury joined Red Hat last year after JBoss acquisition as senior VP of JBoss division, and yesterday announced that he won’t be back.

Fleury complained about a lack of support for Jboss and now he said that he has decided to leave Red Hat to pursue other personal interests.

Red Hat released the following statement from Fleury on Friday:

I have done what I can to help Red Hat succeed. People need to understand that open source is a tsunami that is transforming the software industry in its wake and its inevitability is now well beyond challenge or the force of individual personality.

While we haven’t heard the last of Fleury, we know that Fleury named JBoss as an example of so called “professional open source“, in which a company forms around the project, owning the code and all key developers.

So, what happens to professional open source firms, when key people leave?

Articles on the topic:

Fleury,JBoss, Red Hat,Payouts..and true entenepreurship

JBoss headFleury quits Red Hat

Could Red Hat loose Jboss founder?