Open Source Links: 29-07-2007

Where’s the grassroots marketing for Linux? – Alex says that the biggest barrier to Open Source adoption is (poor) marketing, and I share his vision. But appropriating returns from the commons is not trivial, and Open Source firms are not willing to invest huge amount of money to publicize public goods. In my opinion we need to implement unconventional marketing campaigns, spending little money and possibly through a collective action. Consortia and similar organizations could play their role in this respect.

Open Source at Microsoft – Bill Hilf announced a new web “property” (fix the FAQ page) that outlines Microsoft’s position on OSS, while Port 25 will still be the source for technical issues. Microsoft is getting closer to OSS (SpikeSource certifies OSS on Windows), but I really doubt they are going to buy Red Hat. While I believe that Savio’s analysis is lucid and intriguing, I am afraid that Microsoft’s investors are too IP-addicted, and the 235 patents story tells a lot about how important is to keep them calm. The “cultural” issue is an issue, if we talk about investors, IMHO.

California city connects with open-source networking – Now it is clear why Cisco is trying to prevent Open Source networking to be successful.

WHurley spins BMC into open source – Dana mentions Whurley’s experience at BMC, apparently another known hacker is leading the Open Source strategy of a (previously) not OS firm. Just as Bob Bray is doing at Autodesk. Again, when talking about hybrid production model (firm+community) people matter.

Advertising the open-source way with Openads – Matt met Scott Switzer, Openads’ founder and CTO, to learn more about Openads business model.

OSCON: Open Source Awards 2007 – David Recordon won the Open Source Awards 2007 as Best Strategist because he has turned OpenID into a viable alternative to non-open identity systems.

SourceForge Community Choice Award winners are…. – Matt commenting SourceForge community-driven awards process says that participants had a tenuous grip on what “enterprise” means, may be he is right, and not just green of envy because Alfresco didn’t win! 😉

OSI Approves New Open-Source License – Ross Mayfield, CEO and co-founder of Socialtext tells eWeek the whole story of the CPAL long approval process.
The Bug in OSI Approved Licenses – I don’t see any “bug”, besides the partially missing transparency, and VCs’ attitude to invest in OS firms is definitely not an OSI’s issue.

Intervista a Bruce Perens (Italian) – When Bruce Perens met the blogosphere here in Italy, I happened to interview him, and Nicola Mattina managed to get it published on Nova 24 (Il Sole24 ore).

[cisco, OSI, Perens, NicolaMattina, BobBray, Whurley, BMC, DavidRecordon, OSCON, commercial open source, open source strategy, Microsoft, SavioRodrigues, SugarCRM]

Related Posts