Commercial Open Source Software

Eric Barroca after reading Dirk Riehle’s slides about “The Commercial Open Source Business Model” wrote an inspiring blog post, receiving a number of interesting feedback from the business open source folk.

Let me start by recommending Dirk’s presentation, it really worths reading, but beware of his definition of  “commercial open source”:

Commercial open source software projects are open source software projects that are owned by a single firm that derives a direct and significant revenue stream from the software.

Continue reading ‘All Open Source Software is Commercial’

The 19th Jolt Annual Award ceremony, held at the SD WEST 2009 earlier this month, celebrated many open source winners this year, also in the books general and books technical categories.

Postgres Plus is the Jolt Winner of the Database Engines and Data Tools category, and I tend to agree with Ed Boyajian, Enterprise DB CEO, saying that the award is an indication that the software industry understands that open sources databases are an increasingly disruptive force in the enterprise market.

Continue reading ‘Jolt Awards 2009: The Open Source Winners list!’

Among the things the new FCC Chairman can do, Julius Genachowski might help open source telephony to become a more significant competitor in the business telephony market, not necessarily taking sides.

Chairing the “Open Source Software for the development of IP telephony” session - held in December at the Broadband Business Forum 2008 - panelists invited to share their visions about open source telephony trends reported about many hybrid case histories.

Continue reading ‘Open Source Telephony: Hybrid gets Mainstream’

Olliance Group, the open source strategy firm, and DLA Piper, one of the largest legal service providers in the world, are organizing the 4th Annual Think Tank.

The Open Source Think Tank 2009, the leading invitation-only commercial open source brainstorm and networking conference, as usual will be held at the Silverado Resort in Napa (California) on March 1-4.

Continue reading ‘Open Source Think Tank 2009: Registrations are now Open’

Gartner’s 2009 predictions have been widely commented over these days, leaving space and opportunities to rediscuss the open source mantra “we cost less”.

Migrate to open source seems the cheapest solution, at least on an individual basis, but enterprise migrations are not an easy game to play, and TCO doesn’t look like the ultimate answer.

Any similarity between the Fermat’s theorem and the cost benefits of open source?

Continue reading ‘Open Source TCO: Total Cost of Ownership and the Fermat’s Theorem’

The New Year historically is a time for self improvement, and the commercial open source side of the world should be no exception to that.

Open Source thought leaders have expressed opinions and discussed the state of open source, here are my takes on some challenges and opportunities for the new year.

Continue reading ‘Commercial Open Source 2009: Challenges and Opportunities’

Funambol - the Mobile Open Source company - few months ago started looking for a community manager, as I learned from Fabrizio Capobianco while he was in Rome to join the VentureCamp.

A couple of days later I got a phone call from my friend and fellow blogger Stefano Maffulli, asking me for Fabrizio’s email. Below the full story.

Roberto’s blog has been a kind of a Monster: a good daily read but also a way to extend the reach of a social network. When I pitched my CV to Fabrizio (Funambol’s CEO) I learned that the selection process had been going on for a while already and other candidates were being evaluated. Nonetheless I was invited to speak with Hal Steger, Funambol’s VP Marketing: I liked his attitude and he liked my multidisciplinary background (architecture, technology and the upcoming MBA). Funambol has a balanced mix of the good hacker’s culture I love and the necessary strength on financial and marketing management, something that I want to learn (and have been missing in my past work experiences).

It wasn’t a long shot after all. It will be fun to work with Funambol’s growing community and the company.

Architect Stefano Maffulli at work by Stefano Maffulli

I am glad that the time I spent sometimes collecting open positions within open source firms and jobs was of some help. Few months ago I also started to display a widget on each job posted by considerati, that I happened to get in touch with via openbusiness, but unfortunately such distributed job site had a limited success.

Stefano, are you already thinking of how to get off the best from programs like Code Sniper and Phone Sniper?

We have some ideas on what has to be improved to help Funambol’s community but we are also open to suggestions. For example, our software is in many places and it’s not easy for newcomers to find what they are looking for. I’m interested in hearing experiences of Funambol’s users with the software, the mailing lists, the repository and the company: they can come to me and I’ll help if at all possible.

Funambol’s architecture of participation welcomes small contributions, allowing individuals to more easily participate, I am looking forward to ask Stefano how is he doing in six months from now.

For the time being I wish him and Funambol all the best!

Read Stefano Maffulli’s full profile on Linkedin.