Commercial Open Source Software

The next Focus Group Open Source meeting will focus on how to select open source software and the case for Joomla!

After a walk through topics like Social Media and Open Data, it’s time to get back to our roots. This time to talk about Joomla! we invited Ryan Ozimek, one of the leading world Joomla! experts, former President of Open Source Matters and CEO and founder of PICnet Inc, a company that develops innovative solutions for public and nonprofit organizations around the world.

The event will feature also Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona’s keynote about how to evaluate and select open source software. Barahona is Professor at the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid and founder of Bitergia, a startup that specializes in the development of open source projects.

For more information and to sign up for the event, see the Focus Group Open Source blog.

ForumPA has video-interviewed me about the past and upcoming Focus Group Open Source meet-ups. I wish to publicly thank Gianni Dominici, ForumPA General Manager, to both promote and join our events, bringing his knowledge and understanding of Italian Public Administrations. Since we enjoyed his talk about the Italian Open Data state of the art, we look forward to have him opening the next event that will be held on the 14th of March.

If you plan to come, don’t forget to sign up by sending an email to our host.

The next Focus Group Open Source meeting will focus on Social Media and Citizenship 2.0, and it will take place on the 14th of March 2012 in Rome, at IBM’s office (sponsor of the event). Among invited speakers Gianni Dominici (ForumPA), Paolo Coppola (Comune di Udine), Stefano Epifani (Università di Roma), and Alessandro Chinnici (IBM).

For more information and to sign up for the event, see the Focus Group Open Source blog.

The next Focus Group Open Source meeting will focus on Open Data, and it will take place on the 25th of January 2012 in Rome, at IBM’s office (sponsor of the event). Among invited speakers Gianni Dominici (ForumPA), Federico Morando (Apps4Italy), Salvatore Marras (dati.gov), Ernesto Belisario (Italian Association for Open Government),  and Guido Vetere (IBM).

For more information and to sign up for the event, see the Focus Group Open Source blog.

SUSE Italia celebrates Linux 20th birthday on the 15th of November 2011 in Rome, and on the 17th of November in Milan. The event is aimed at unveiling SUSE Italia’s new structure and the distinguishing features of SUSE Linux.

The event is tailored to the interest of actual and potential partners.

The second event of the Focus Group Open Source series has been held yesterday in Milan, at the IBM Forum, all presentations have been uploaded. Sergio Sansonetti - IBMer and host -  welcomed the audience talking about the Focus Group initiative and presenting all the speakers.

After presenting some quick facts of the historical background of Linux I invited Fiorello Cortiana to share his experience and vision around open source for Public Administrations. Andrea Trentini later gave a talk about how free software is taking at the Milan university.

Massimiliano Belardi - Sales Specialist at IBM - joined us for the second time with his talk about IBM continued engagement with Linux, providing the audience with more insights and case-history details. Marco De Felice - Delphis Informatica CEO - gave a speech around his experiences with helping customers to evalute and eventually perform z Series migrations.

Read more at the Focus Group website.

During the first meeting of the Open Source Focus Group 2011, held in May at the ForumPA, I have been interviewed by the organizers to take stock of how Linux and Open Source are doing in the Italian public administrations. During the interview, I mentioned how SOS Open Source can eventually help organizations, both public and private, to start their open source journey.

Red Hat Italia organized its fifth open source day last week in Rome, and it was quite a success by the numbers:  700 people subscribed to the event, about 500 attendees, 6 talks in the plenary session and 12 speeches in the parallel sessions.

I have been following the whole event before running the final round-table, and I wish to share here some notes from the event.

Continue reading ‘Notes from Red Hat Open Source Day 2011′

The Italian biweekly newspaper “Corriere delle Comunicazioni” in collaboration with HP and Intel invite everyone interested in knowing more about mission critical data centers to join us on the 5th of July, at the Hotel Nazionale in Rome.

Gildo Campesato - Founder and Director of Corriere delle Comunicazioni - will welcome attendees at 14:15 PM, later I will give an introductory speech before introducing our round table speakers, including Alessandro Musumeci (Ferrovie dello Stato), Giovanni Rando Mazzarino (Lottomatica), Emilio Frezza (Comune di Roma), Giuseppe Maria Armenia (ICE), Gaetano Scebba (Api), Alessandro Gabrieli (HP) and Carmine Stragapede (Intel).

Register online, and see you there!

I had already interviewed Luca Passani - the inventor and maintainer of WURFL, the Wireless Universal Resource FiLe - a few years back, but now that his new venture ScientiaMobile hit the market it is time to talk to him again.

I asked Luca to tell us about the new company, its licensing and business strategy.

Continue reading ‘WURFL Goes to the USA: ScientiaMobile is Born’