Updates from January, 2007 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Roberto Galoppini 4:14 pm on January 14, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Commercial OS Jobs: Director of Product Marketing 

    Socialtext, who released on july the first Commercial Open Source wiki, is seeking an experienced product marketing professional.

    Whatever you think about firms using MPL extensions (read SocialText proposal for Attribution provision if you want to know more, or start reading Ross Mayfield post about it), I suggest you all, both employers and employees, to read carefully profile’s requirements:

    • 10+ years product marketing experience with demonstrated success in leading product marketing activities for successful enterprise software companies;
      .
    • Experience working with Sales and Product Management to launch and market successful product lines;
      .
    • Experienced team leader – able to recruit, hire, and inspire high performance product marketing teams;
      .
    • Experience supporting an enterprise sales team with product collateral, demos, sales-oriented web site and internal positioning/strategy documents;
      .
    • Experience working with distributed teams;
      .
    • Holistic understanding of commercial open source software;
      .
    • Passion for social software and Enterprise 2.0 solutions;
      .
    • You blog;
      .
    • Proven success marketing the early stages of a new business or technology;
      .
    • Demonstrated focus on metrics, tracking program details, and ROI;
      .
    • Ability to balance strategic and tactical execution;
      .
    • Excellent written & verbal communication skills;
      .
    • Outstanding customer and partner engagement skills;
      .
    • Strong project management and organizational skills;
      .
    • Outstanding presentation skills to large and small audiences including customer executives and press/analysts;
      .
    • BA/BS degree (MBA or MS is highly desirable).
     

  • Roberto Galoppini 3:56 pm on January 13, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Catalogue 2007, by Optaros 

    Optaros, a consulting and systems integration firm offering customers assembled solutions using open source software and open standards source, just released a guide under a Creative Commons license (made available also by LWN) reviewing what they consider the 262 best open-source applications.

    The objective of Optaros’ Open Source Catalogue 2007 is to give IT decision makers navigation support by listing the most relevant, useful and enterprise-ready open source platforms, components, frameworks and solutions in an easy-to-read overview.

    Projects are listed in four different categories:

    • operating systems and infrastructure,
      .
    • application development and infrastructure,
      .
    • infrastructure solutions,
      .
    • business applications.

    While the selection and the rating system is based on Optaros’ experiences and the interaction with open source communities and companies, Dave Rosenberg said it would be better suited to a Wiki style of editing.

    Bruno von Rotz, Optaros vice president who authored the report, wrote:

    The Open Source Catalogue is not intended to replace detailed evaluation or proof of concepts, but provide some help to conduct a first selection.

    Send feedbacks to oss-catalogue@optaros.com

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 12:48 pm on January 12, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    OpenMoko: the integrated OS Mobile communications platform 

    Two days ago I got distracted by the Apple’s announcement, while already exists an Open Mobile Communications development platform named OpenMoko, announced by the Open Source in Mobile Conference, held in Amsterdam’s on the 7th of November 2006. OpenMoko is a spin-off of Taiwanese computer First International Computer.

    As observed the concept of the mobile phone NEO1973, likely to be the first 640×480 screen phone available in the U.S., is based on OpenMoko, and it’s quite similar to the iPhone, where the latter is more stylish.

    OpenMoko is based on 2.6 Kernel, has layered an application framework, interface layer, and a few basic programs (dialer, address book, and message application).

    The application framework and the application manager are the key, as Moss-Pultz, OpenMoko head, explained 3,500 applications could be adapted.

    Developers are warmly invited to participate:

    Whoever writes the most popular application gets a free phone, that sort of thing.

    OpenMoko plans to make money by certifying applications, but users might choose to get them from uncertified communities’ applications.
    At the international CES, held in Las Vegas from the 8th of January till the 11th, developers large and small have come together bringing thousands of open source applications to the mobile phone, read the full story.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 6:56 pm on January 11, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Business development: the Compiere approach 

    On the 9th of January Compiere Inc. announced its worldwide partner program.

    From its inception Compiere worked hard to create an ecosystem of firms to provide services to Compiere customers, and today there are nearly 100 partners worldwide.

    About three years ago, on the 3th of November 2003, I was writing an article about Compiere to be published on an Italian IT magazine, and I sent an email asking what needed to be listed as certified partner, and I got the following answer:

    Dear Roberto, If you pay the Partner fee and attend an Intensive Training class you would be considered a Certified Partner and would be listed on our Web Page. At this time we do not have a written or practical test for certification.

    Today reading their announcement I got the impression they’re trying to change their approach, defining three different partnership programs (authorized partner program, authorized silver partner program, authorized gold partner program) corresponding to accomodate different partners’ needs.

    Authorized Partner is the basic partner offering designed for smaller partners, and it is a great entry into the partner program for newer partners. Membership fee is $5,000, and partner is expected to maintain at least 1 “Certified Professional”

    Authorized Partner Silver is designed to meet the needs of most partners. Our silver partners will have extended level support agreements giving the partner access to daily build software releases, partner branded implementation portal, and other benefits not available to authorized partners. Membership fee is $7,500, and partner is expected to maintain at least 2 “Certified Professionals” and meet revenue targets for Compiere.

    Authorized Partner Gold is the elite designation for Compiere’s top partners. These are the partners that generate the most business for Compiere, and in return are rewarded with additional partner benefits including click-through ads and distribution of additional sales leads. Membership fee is $10,000, and partner is expected to maintain at least 4 “Certified Professionals” and meet revenue targets for Compiere.

    From a customer point of view instead, what is needed is a clear definition of the level of the expertise they can rely upon, and this kind of information is yet not available.

    Partners’ page doesn’t distinguish among partners: all partners are equal, but some are (likely) to be more equal than others..

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 6:38 pm on January 10, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source, Openness and Second life 

    Everybody is talking about Linden going Open Source with the Second Life client.

    While they claimed to “welcome the inevitable with open arms” I believe they decided to go open in order to cut software production costs. Their choice has a very low degree of resemblance to the Netscape’s lately loss leader move to me, on the contrary it’s likely to result in many beneficial developments, as greatly described by Susan Wu on her blog:

    • Reducing the engineering/QA costs at Linden Lab. As one of the better implementations of a Snow Crash like Metaverse, Second Life has attracted more creator personality types than traditional online games or communities. libsecondlife, a library/SDK that implements a subset of the Second Life network protocol, is a pretty good indication of how motivated these hacker/coder types will be to extend the utility of the Second Life client beyond what it can currently do. A fully open sourced client extends the possibilities both by being a more powerful framework into which new functionality can be added and simply because it is a fully official project, supported directly by Linden Lab.
      .
    • Mashup style applications, widgets for MySpace. libsecondlife was somewhat limited, in that it was built on a partial reverse engineering of the SL protocol, whereas the full viewer release reveals the complete details of the protocol. I expect to see things like web page to Second Life widgets allowing Second Life users to check their in-world messages or chat with people who are in-world without actually loading the full viewer application locally. I also expect to see scaled down Second Life clients that can run on cell phones or other small devices, giving the user a simplified 2D experience of the Second Life world as an alternative for when they can’t run the full desktop client. I don’t expect these clients to support the full immersive Second Life environment like the official desktop client, but lightweight in-browser access would be a net positive for a lot of Second Life members.
      .
    • Improved graphics. For all the network engineering marvels Second Life possesses, its graphical engine is decidedly old school by today’s standards. There are a lot of ways in which it could be improved while still displaying the same content. I expect some bored graphics developers to take the core client and move it over to a more shader-friendly rendering model, perhaps adding in some clever automatic up-ressing of texture and 3D model content in the process, a la Tenebrae Quake.
      .
    • Better support for third-party building tools. With the full client open sourced, I’d be surprised if the 3D model builders who live, eat and breath Maya or 3D Studio Max or Blender don’t build tools to allow them to more directly interface their 3D modelling tool of choice into the Second Life world viewer.
      .
    • Accessibility by new audiences. For what I assume are the purposes of ease of cross-platform development, Second Life uses a custom UI widget system. Between this and the inherent blind-accessibility problem of untagged 3D data, Second Life just hasn’t been very accessible to the disabled. While there is no guarantee that this an itch some third-party developers will want to scratch, it would be a really nice benefit if it did come to pass. A virtual world like Second Life is exactly the sort of thing that could be liberating for a lot of disabled folks, yet the current system doesn’t cater to them at all. Hopefully motivated open source developers will fill the gap here.
      .

    Talking about Open Source and Openness Susan Wu stated:

    [..] open sourcing the client doesn’t necessarily result in an open platform or openness of user experience [..].Openness is a design philosophy, whereas open source is a licensing choice.

    I do totally agree, openness and licensing aren’t exactly the same thing.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 9:01 am on January 10, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Embedded Linux: Nokia’s move 

    Nokia just launched a Developer Device Program, providing OS developers with Nokia N800 Internet Tablets at a discount, only 500 selected developers will be granted the special price (99 euro).

    Nokia through the Maemo.org project, a project meant for developers with personal or commercial interests in developing software for handhelds like Internet Tablets, is already maintaining firmware for its 770 and now for the N800 Internet tablet.

    Ari Jaaksi, head of Nokia’s open source software operations, said that he hopes to increase Nokia’s involvement in the open-source community, both taking and giving back code.

    Read Ari Jaaksi’s white paper documenting some of their experiences and learnings when building consumer products with open source.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 7:45 pm on January 9, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Embedded Linux: Motorola’s last move.. 

    To be a Linux-Motorola’s fun it’s not an easy task, but yesterday’s Motorola announcement made it nearly impossible for Linux enthusiasts
    Scott Durschslag, CVP of products at Motorola’s mobile device division, stated:

    The MotoRizr Z6 is the world’s first Linux-Java music phone integrating the full suite of Windows Media technologies. This will enable consumers to access whatever music content they want, from the music store they love, wherever they are, as simply and seamlessly as possible.”

    Read the full story.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 12:32 pm on January 9, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Free Software is just Free Software 

    Lars Wirzenius known to the large public either for being Torvalds’s friend, or to had been responsible for architectural design and project management of a great piece of software named Kannel, recently wrote about what does it mean to be free software developer.

    Answering someone having expectations about Free Software world being in the forefront protecting civil liberties and civil rights, wisely wrote:

    The thing that unites the free software developers, and the only thing that unites us, is that we make free software.

    I have never read before a well-known free software developer stating it so clearly, and I liked very much his conclusion:

    I’m a free software developer and the only thing about me you can deduce from that is that I develop free software.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 4:49 pm on January 8, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Franchising (more) 

    Open Source franchising is aimed at delivering to the market IT basic services using OSS, with a fixed-time fixed-price methodology meeting clearly defined performance criteria (SLA).

    Open Source franchising for customers is about getting business value with a shorter time of deployment, getting reliable solutions and services through certified franchisees instead of waiting for local resellers, known to spend little time management customers’ problems.
    As seen with Geeksoncall, there is space for growing in computer services franchise arena, and no one has explored yet such potential market using commercial open source software.

    Appropriating returns is not trivial for ventures making business with open innovation, but Sun could profit from running a partnership franchising program, offering franchisees the following services:

    • training;
      .
    • certifications;
      .
    • global marketing;
      .
    • subscription services;
      .
    • value added services (indemnification, benchmarking and stack assurance, mediation, etc).

    Sun besides fee incomes, will be fueling a profitable mechanism for selling its hardware products along with subscription services and value-added services through the franchising channel.

    Franchisees, delivering basic services with a standard methodology, can be perceived as more valuable then VAR channels, representing for the vendor a more effective distribution mechanism to medium-to-large buyers.

    Becoming a Franchisee require investing time and money to become proficient with Franchisor’s products and procedures, in order to be able to deliver services on time, on budget and respecting SLAs.

    Who might be interested in joining the OS franchise program?

    The Observatory of European SMEs noticed that:

    Small firms have a short-term perspective and expect quick and concrete results.

    So existing ventures are unlikely to apply at the very beginning, since small firms can’t afford to offer its personnel intensive training, as employees are needed in day-to-day activities.

    New ventures instead could join the franchising program, forming their business strategy without worrying about any earlier decision. Moreover Start-ups might apply knowing that belonging to a franchise can affect positively newness and smallness liabilities, and lower market entry barriers.

    Newness. Start-ups lack of relationships with any kind of stakeholder, while the Franchisor, as established firm, has the level of access, legitimacy, track of record and reputation required to aid effectively the franchisee to develop relationships. Otherwise the entrepreneur must somehow absorb any risk a customer should take to do business with her start-up.

    Smallness. A small firm can’t employ many people, and often is missing the required skills; a limited market presence and therefore a limited market power put small firms in a weak position in negotiations. The Franchisor’s network of enterprises can be helpful to locate skilled resources, where the fixed price policy defined by the Franchisor makes easier contractualization.

    Market Entry barriers.The skills and experience of the Franchisor, along with a strong brand and an international advertising and public relations programs can help start-ups to get into the market.

    Last but not least the cost of entry might cost less than ordinary computer service franchising business fares, see Geeksoncall fares to get an idea.

    Previous others’ posts and comments on open source franchising:

    Matt Asay’s post on his blog (my answer)
    Frank Hecker’s comments
    Matt Asay’s post on Infoworld
    James McGovern’s post
    Savio Rodrigues’s post
    Sergio Montoro’s post (spanish)

     

    • Frank Hecker 2:03 am on January 9, 2007 Permalink

      I looked at the Geeks On Call site — very interesting, and I think a good starting point for considering what a FLOSS franchising business would look like. Basically from a franchisee point of view the Geeks On Call business model appears to require only someone with the necessary franchise fee and some employees with the relevant certifications (Microsoft, etc.); Geeks On Call adds value through assistance with marketing, scheduling and dispatch, employee recruiting, tech support, and so on. Geeks On Call appears to concern themselves mainly with desktop hardware and software and networks (including firewalls, etc.), but apparently doesn’t support actual server-side applications (except perhaps stuff like Exchange).

      Here are some scenarios I can think of for a “Geeks On Call”-like franchise operation that goes beyond basic hardware and software support:

      1. Geeks On Call itself moves “up the stack” and begins installing and supporting server-side applications. Given there traditional orientation I suspect they’d extend their existing Microsoft partnership and do this based on Microsoft server applications (e.g., Exchange, Sharepoint, etc.).

      2. A hardware vendor like Sun goes into the franchising business using FLOSS server-side software, in the manner you suggest.

      3. A software vendor like Red Hat does this; Red Hat of course already has both a certification program and a growing stack of server applications software). They partner with a hardware vendor to handle the hardware part of the business.

      4. A more radical idea: Why install software locally at the customer’s premises? If you have a strong franchisor with deep experience in FLOSS, why not leverage that experience to host the relevant applications centrally like SalesForce.com, Google, etc? Then the franchisee would only be responsible for initial account setup (including data conversion and perhaps limited customization), customer training, and level 1 support; they wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with the customer’s operational issues (backup, server administration, and so on).

      Of course, this model doesn’t really serve the needs of a company like Sun (which wants to sell hardware) or Red Hat (which wants to sell RHEL subscriptions). However if a new company wanted to be just a franchisor (like Geeks On Call) and not be distracted by other lines of business (like selling hardware or software), then this is the model I think might work best. The company wouldn’t even need necessarily to build its own operational infrastructure; it could potentially piggyback on the infrastructure built by others (e.g., Amazon).

    • Roberto Galoppini 1:05 pm on January 9, 2007 Permalink

      I’m following your line of thought, and I totally agree from point 1 to 3.

      I understand reasons behind the more radical idea you depicted in point 4, I see Google trying to do this, they have no concern about their channel program: they’re much alike an (the) Internet Application Service Provider.
      But companies like to store their own data by their systems, at least so far, and it might be really tough to let they change their minds. And internet reliability might be an issue too, at least down here in Italy.

      And yes, as you observed this model doesn’t serve the needs of a company like Sun (which wants to sell hardware AND subscription) nor Red Hat.

    • Savio Rodrigues 2:30 am on January 10, 2007 Permalink

      Frank,

      One question about your “#4 A more radical idea”:

      What value is left on the table for the franchisee? The type of work that remains doesn’t appear to be valuable enough (in the eyes of the customer) to drive enough revenue or margins to make a franchise worthwhile. I could be wrong though.

    • Roberto Galoppini 5:54 pm on January 13, 2007 Permalink

      Savio are you saying that franchising business models are not valuable?
      Weather or not we talk about software I would say that franchising it’s a wealthy business: in 2001 only in US the Franchising Business provided 9,797,117 jobs, met a $229.1 billion payroll, and produced $624.6 billion of output.
      What I’m stating is that it makes a lot of sense for OS basic services, for all parties.

  • Roberto Galoppini 10:04 am on January 8, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Women in Open Source 

    Google alerts let me know about the mini-conference “Women in Open Source” , will be guested by the upcoming Southern California Linux Expo on the 9th of February.

    The press release don’t have much of a fully formed agenda for the event yet, says shessuchageek . and since there are still speaker slots available send your talk proposals asap.

     

    • Savio Rodrigues 3:34 am on January 10, 2007 Permalink

      Thanks Roberto!

      I’ve forwarded the info to Alice Chou, who came over to the IBM WebSphere team as part of the Gluecode acquisition. Alice played a big part in the marketing strategy at Gluecode and is currently doing the same with IBM WAS CE. She knows her open source stuff!

    • Roberto Galoppini 3:22 pm on January 10, 2007 Permalink

      It sounds great, I hope they’ll manage to fill up nicely the agenda!

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