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  • Roberto Galoppini 4:15 pm on May 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Business Intelligence: is Nextanalytics Open Source? I doubt 

    Nextanalytics , a business intelligence company based in Ottawa, announced the availability of the Nextanalytics 3.0, a business analytics platform with a proprietary analytic engine and an open source tier needed to integrate it with third parties’ applications and solutions.

    In a marketing move, nextanalytics claims to be open source while making source code available only partially.

    Marketing claims Marketing claims by Domenico Sav

    Reading some posts on the subject I found Ward Yaternickh, Nextanalytics founder and CEO, saying:

    We’re actively soliciting a community of third-party consultants, ISVs, and sole proprietor developers to offer services and products that employ nextanalytics to do their data integration and processing. We have great technology and now, with our new open-source inspired, community-driven Web site, we have made it easy to work with nextanalytics. Now, any dev shop can distinguish themselves with our software as their analytics engine. Through this strategy, we hope to be the next MySQL, but with a focus on business analytics.

    The developer zone doesn’t look community driven at the present stage, as honestly recognizes Ward who told me that the ROI to create a proper forge is still uncertain. Nextanalytics has clearly also very little to do even with new MySQL’s approach (where some add-ons could be eventually distributed as proprietary pluggable features), so I asked some clarifications.

    How open source you are?

    For a nominal, (interpret “fair”) annual fee, people can get some analytic functionality to improve what they use to make business decisions, and as much open source code as they need to integrate into their environments. If they can find something useful in our list of features, then the cost-benefit is obvious. If we don’t have what they need, then they have to go up-market and pay a lot more. That is why nextanalytics exists, to sell to that market.

    Nextanalytics is aiming at making programmers’ lives easier, providing them with open source reference implementations and documentation to do things faster and easier. So far, so good.

    Does it make them an open source company? I don’t think so.

    Technorati Tags: open source business, open source business intelligence, business intelligence, nextanalytics, wardyaternick

     

    • Ward Yaternick (nextanalytics) 5:01 pm on May 5, 2008 Permalink

      Thanks for taking a look at the netanalytics product line Roberto.

      I think what you said is a fair assessment of where we are as of this moment and I enjoyed the cartoon.

      I’ve been a programmer for 25 years and the idea of me being the marketing guy would make some former colleagues fall off their chair laughing! Oh wait, they used to do that to me all the time anyway.

      **** LATE BREAKING NEWS **** Just today, I initiated a “proper” open source project at SourceForget.net complete with having to agree to all the conditions of Open Source as per their Defintions. We will be open source, then.

      I guess it looks like I’m reacting, but truthfully, not really. I created the SourceForge.net project before you told me what you were going to say.

      The real reason is that, over the weekend, I had a lot of email from people questioning my approach to Open Source. In responding to their questions, I learned a lot about Open Source, true Open Source :).

      So that’s why I decided to open up a SourceForge.net project.

      It takes a bit of time go through an approval process and then I have to get the java and c# versions uploaded. But, after that, in a few weeks, we’ll have products that are truly open source as per the broad community definition, no more wiggly-marketing words as per your cartoon :).

      For the code that’s up on the Forge, I will ensure there’s enough in there to be useful to a lot of people.

      I’ll ping you when I’ve done that, just in case you want to take a look at the “real” open source. Who knows, maybe you’ll want to create your first BI solution after that?

      Thanks again and CIAO to all!

    • Roberto Galoppini 8:48 am on May 6, 2008 Permalink

      Hi Ward,

      I am glad me and others are helping you to form a better idea of what makes a product open source. Whenever you are ready to announce an open source release you are more than welcome, open source BI apparently is slowly catching on though.

      Happy hacking!

  • Roberto Galoppini 9:35 am on May 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Sun and Microsoft Open Source Strategies: links 03-06-08 

    Sun’s open source strategy overshadowed by legacy businesses – (via google alert) Larry Dignan is skeptical about the possibility that open source will turbo charge the rest of Sun’s businesses.

    Managing Toward Open – Sam Ramji writes about how the interrelationship between Microsoft and open source is changing. Matthew Aslett commented Microsoft’s move to jump into cross-platform system management.

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 10:47 am on May 2, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Government: Italian Open Source Commission relases draft Report 

    Last June the former Italian Minister of Reform and Innovations in Public Administration, Luigi Nicolais, announced the creation of the second Italian Open Source Commission, and last week the commission coordinated by professor Angelo Raffaele Meo released a first draft of the report (Italian).

    Neapolitean coffee The Neapolitean coffee is finished. Any more coffee? Valpopando (LYJR)

    The commission, composed of sixteen members and supported by the National Center for Information Technology in Public Administration and the Department of Innovation, would have probably needed more time to define procurement policies for IT Public procurement of open source software.

    Will also the next Italian government take good care of open source?

    Technorati Tags: open source government, open source procurement, Italian government, open source report

     

    • Flavia 8:49 am on May 3, 2008 Permalink

      Provided that the first Open Source Commission (http://www.cnipa.gov.it/site/_files/dm_021031.pdf) was established by the previous Minister of Innovation and Technologies, Mr. Stanca, and provided that Mr. Stanca will probably be the new Minister, I can guess that he will “play” some more on that issue!
      Let’s hope.

  • Roberto Galoppini 4:47 pm on April 30, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Governance: BlackDuck acquires Koders 

    Savio Rodrigues reported that Black Duck Software, an intellectual property management firm delivering services to identify risks and vulnerabilities in an enterprise’s open-source code, acquired Koders, a free on-line search engine for open source software.

    interesting timesInteresting times by Zesmerelda

    Today I asked Doug Levin, BlackDuck CEO, some feedback:

     

    Black Duck acquired Koders, Inc. because we have broadened our offerings and now help companies find, approve, validate and manage open source components in their software development environment. Koders.com and Koders technology will play a key role in Black Duck’s future as a code search engine tightly integrated into future versions of our products, especially Code Center.

    BlackDuck is willing to tap deeper into the market of open source library/directory. Savio commented the acquisition:

    The Koders acquisition makes sense because more and more developers are developing by reusing code from external code repositories like Koders. Being able to tap into this source of code (pun intended) will help improve Black Duck’s code scanning capabilities. As a result, this acquisition will improve the level of information (and protection) that companies using OSS have at their disposal, whether the source being leveraged is from a traditional OSS project or an online code repository such as Koders.

    Just like OpenLogic also BlackDuck is taking advantage of the absence of a Corporate actor to develop new services, not based on code production. Open Source Governance it’s an (open) issue, and I think we are seeing just the top of the iceberg at the present time.

    We are going to live in interesting times, no doubt.

    Technorati Tags: BlackDuck, DougLevin, SavioRodrigues, Koders, OpenLogic, commercial open source, open source business, open source directory, open source library, open source governance

     

    • Doug Levin 6:24 pm on April 30, 2008 Permalink

      As the industry matures I’m sure you will see business combinations which are interesting and make sense, and others which are vexing. Clearly, the combination of MySQL and SUN makes sense for customers and the companies. At Black Duck, we knew that the Koders fit with Black Duck made sense on many levels including with respect to vision, operationally, technology and go-to-market factors, and other considerations as well.

    • Roberto Galoppini 9:36 am on May 1, 2008 Permalink

      Hi Doug, while I am still wondering if Sun-MySql merger makes business sense, I totally agree with you that we are definitely going to see more business combinations.

      About Black Duck acquisition I believe you’re right, and I am open to report more about it in six months from now, keep in touch!

  • Roberto Galoppini 4:31 pm on April 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Governance: OpenLogic expands its Library and launches its Comparison Matrix 

    OpenLogic, an open source provider offering software and services for open source governance, announced that OpenLogic Certified Library surpassed 400 certified open source packages available. In addition, OpenLogic broadened functionality of OLEX adding a Comparison Matrix service.

    open roadAn Open road.. by informaplc

    Very few open source projects are managed by a specific corporate actor marketing its products, tracking the production process, partnering with other vendors, offering indemnification protection and a fair software warranty. Players like OpenLogic are taking advantage of the absence of a Corporate actor to develop new services, not based on code production (while participating to open source communities).

    I asked Kim Weins, Senior VP of Marketing, how did come out the idea of the comparison matrix?

    The reason we are coming out with the comparison matrix is that we have heard from customers that it is often difficult to figure out which open source package is best for a given situation. Since there is often limited documentation and marketing materials (except for the relatively few open source projects backed by commercial vendors), companies often pick open source based on reputation or by having developers do in depth research on open source package. The comparison matrix is a starting point that will help companies select the right package or set of packages to evaluate based on their particular need.

    The cost of free, namely the cost associated with open source software selection, is the reason behind OpenLogic’s decision to build such resources. OpenLogic started covering Application Servers, Databases and Web Application Frameworks three categories.

    Kim, how did you choose the first three categories?

    We’ve started with Application Servers, Databases and Web Application Frameworks because they are some of the open source projects used most frequently by enterprises. We will be adding more areas going forward.

    I see a sea of opportunities here. Magic Quadrants are just beginning to cover also open source products, but many categories like open source network management probably need similar attention.

    Few months ago Matt Asay argued that OpenLogic’s success could have been achieved at the expense of the projects that made it possible, Kim replied on the subject explaining how OpenLogic gives back. As a matter of fact open source software is a proper free market, where appropriating returns from commons is challenging.

    Kim, which is OpenLogic strategy about partnerships?

    We partner with vertical players whenever possible. For most open source projects in our library, there is no commercial vendor. For the handful where there is a commercial vendor, we prefer to partner with them.

    It makes perfect sense, and I am looking forward to report future steps in this direction.

    Technorati Tags: OLEX, OpenLogic, KimWeins, MattAsay, commercial open source, open source business, open source comparison, open source library

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 8:28 am on April 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Conference: The Italian Conference on Free Software 

    The second edition of the Italian Conference on Free Software will be held in Trento from the 16th to the 18th of May.

    The ConfSL 2008 has multiple working sessions, addressing different point of view about Free Software (Open Session, Academical Session, a brokerage event and a mapping party).

    1. Open Session
    Dedicated to the widest audience, it aims to disseminate basic concepts around Free Software, with a special accent on  well (and less) known aspects about its practical usage.

    2. Academic Session
    The primary scientific goal is to catch the state of art of Free Software; seminars and workshops will afford to give an all-around survey about it in a multi-disciplinary fashion.

    3.  Open Source 2008 – brokerage event
    It is a partner event of ConfSL (managed by Trentino Sviluppo) member of European IRC (Innovation Relay Centre) network. It will be held friday afternoon and it will offer specific opportunites to exchange and transfer knowledge, know-how and experiences between Enterprises, Technology Providers, Associations, and Public Administrations. The main goal is to create concrete partnership opportunities, both commercial and technological, between participants.

    My speech on standards conformance has been accepted, and I am glad to join the event both to talk about the importance to prove that software products are meeting open standards‘ specifications and to do some networking. See you there!

    Technorati Tags: confSL, Italian conference, open standards, Trentino Sviluppo, European IRC

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 9:58 am on April 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    European Open Source Observatory Monthly news: Europarlement, Germany, France, Netherlands 

    The SEMIC.EU event, scheduled for June 17, 2008 in Brussels, will feature the official launch of the SEMIC.EU website.

    In November 2007, the Semantic Interoperability Centre Europe (SEMIC.EU) opened its virtual doors to the public and can now be accessed through the new website http://www.semic.eu.
    The SEMIC.EU project aims to build a European platform for interoperability assets and services available to the public sector and its stakeholders in Europe, focusing on semantic – ie. content -interoperability.

    The communication platform will facilitate the creation of expert communities, and will provide a public web repository on semantic interoperability issues.

    Some month’s news on the IDABC Open Source Observatory:

    FR: Marseille to switch to OpenOffice

    DE: Hospital cuts costs with Open Source

    EU: Europarlement testing Ubuntu, OpenOffice and Firefox

    NL: Use of Open Source software requires no European IT tenders

     

    Read them all.

     

  • Egor Grebnev 8:59 am on April 24, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Source Government: Several notes on the Russian Free Software Development Concept 

    Russian Ministry on Information Technology and Communications published recently a document entitled Concept of development and usage of Free Software in the Russian Federation (Russian). It is a 29-page text, which is by far the most detailed roadmap of government involvement in Free Software. The legal status of this document is not very strong: in the recent Russian governmental tradition a ‘concept’ is a kind of a detailed policy declaration, which may not be fully observed or may even be rejected or forgotten after a short period of time. However, it may serve as groundwork for future projects and more specific policy measures. Thus, even though a concept document does not create anything by itself, its availability is necessary for creation of good things.

    Russian DevelopmentRussian Development by mosdave

    The concept contains a detailed list of the proposed projects divided into three groups: legal, infrastructure and R&D and is scheduled up until 2010.

    The first positive thing about the document is that operates the term Free Software (Russian is one of the languages where you cannot confuse ‘free beer’ with ‘free speech’).

    The concept aims to strengthen the local software development industry and increase involvement of Russian programmers in development of software for government and municipal needs. The latter aim may be viewed as an acknowledgement of the fact that there are not enough Russian developers building software for the local needs and that the government demand is higher than supply.

    The primary directions of government involvement are: improvement of the legal framework, help in creation of the market infrastructure, R&D projects and wide-scale training.

    The legal block

    Russia is one of the countries where the American FLOSS licenses do not always look applicable. The particular problems targeted by the concept are:

    • the ‘written form’ of the copyright agreement required by the Russian Civil Code (there is a special exception for software, but the status of Free Software documentation remains unclear)
    • applicability of foreign law and court jurisdiction in international lawsuits
    • individual applicability of FOSS licenses
    • copyright management in government software-related contracts (both the state as a customer and the executor of a state contract must have sufficient rights)

    Development infrastructure

    This might be the most surprising and contradictory part of the document. The government plans to build a reference package building environment, a unified software repository for different platforms (including operating systems, basic development tools, middleware etc.), tracking of all the software titles used in government and tools for automatic certification of software that corresponds to particular standards.

    This ‘infrastructure’ is viewed as the platform for community participation in development of FOSS for Russian government and a multi-featured tracking and management tool for various kinds of software used throughout the government. The specific infrastructure actions include conduction of government-sponsored development competitions, definition of priority projects, maintaining of an up-to-date list of recommended standards and specifications etc.

    R&D priorities

    The following projects are the top priorities for software development projects:

    1. full-featured office solutions for public sector users
    2. common software packages for educational supplements
    3. software packages for collective Internet access points
    4. software for government services websites
    5. integration platform for e-government
    6. secure solutions for critical deployments
    7. development of service-oriented model of software distribution

    There is much to criticize about the concept. In particular, the whole legal block seems not very important to me, and it is difficult to tell who will do the necessary development for the R&D projects taking the lack of established FOSS vendors in the country into account.

    Nevertheless, FOSS has got very official acknowledgment, the government has set very ambitious targets, and the whole document, its structure and language show that it is built upon the Russian experience and is not a product of bare creativity or a borrowing of other countries’ policies. Hopefully, this progress in policy development will help to grow the local FOSS production, which is by far not as large as the government (and all of us) would wish.

    Technorati Tags: open source government, Russia, Russian Federation, free software, FOSS vendors

     

  • Roberto Galoppini 4:33 pm on April 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    OpenOffice.org: OpenOffice.org 2.4 break through 16,900 downloads per day! 

    The OpenOffice.org Italian Association is proud to announce another record: the Italian release of the world’s leading free and open source productivity suite has experienced a surge in demand for its last version, OpenOffice.org 2.4.

    OpenOffice.org experienced more than 16,900 downloads per day over the last 23 days, for a total of more than 370.000 downloads!

    Davide Dozza, PLIO’s president commented the result:

    While we were working on our april foul, downloads were running furiously, doubling the 2.3 rate, and quadrupling last year’s downloads. Likely the availability of new Italian linguistic tools, along with the support for PDF/A, are bringing more and more people to try OpenOffice.org, and learn about free software value.

    Technorati Tags: openoffice.org, openoffice, davidedozza, PLIO, PDF/A

     

  • Giuseppe Castagno 11:23 am on April 22, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Open Standards definition: Is ODF etched on rock? No, not true 

    I’ve been using OOo for quite some time now, more then four year, started using it around 2003, if I recall.

    Last year I needed a feature in OOo index generation I quickly found out it wasn’t available, there were workarounds, but I didn’t like them.

    Etched RockEtched Rock by (sam)

    Being OOo available in source code, I started digging into it until I found the code responsible for index generation. Built a patch for myself and solved the index generation problem, at least at my end of the line.

    Then I proposed the change to OOo community.

    As you can see in that thread, what came up was that ODF 1.0 didn’t support the index structure description needed to completely implement the feature.

    So the discussion continued until I was suggested to post a comment to the relevant OASIS list to describe the proposed modification to ODF standard.

    I did so, and after some discussion my proposed change was integrated in current ODF 1.2 specification draft.

    Unfortunately that meant that the new feature would be implemented in OOo in the next main release, since it implied changing the ODF document format.

    That’s the reason why you’ll find it in 3.0 release.

    So I waited until the 3.0 source code was ready, when it was ready I implemented that new feature which is now part of the 3.0 functionality.

    It was fun, actually.

    You can find another comment in Mathias Bauer’s blog.

    What’s the moral? A truly public specification can be upgraded by the public at large, provided the suggestion is a sound one.

    Technorati Tags: open standards, OASIS, ODF, ODF 1.2, MathiasBauer

     

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