tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14624023331805212272024-03-04T23:27:18.063-08:00Doug Levin's CEO BlogDoug Levin's observations as the CEO of Black Duck Software on software development, today's business models, software licenses, Open Source Software, entrepreneurship and venture capital, culture and life in general.Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-44370283177625292642008-06-18T12:10:00.000-07:002008-06-18T12:11:49.816-07:00Please GO TO new blog location:<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.opensourceadoption.com/">www.opensourceadoption.com</a><o:p></o:p></p> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-16527340979796867592008-06-13T20:15:00.000-07:002008-06-14T08:20:40.081-07:00New Blog, New Beginning<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I have switched location of my blog to www.opensourceadoption.com.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">As Carlos Castaneda said, “Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Following the acquisition of Koders.com, an increasingly larger community of Black Duck customers and our expanding presence in the open source software development community, we have decided to make my blog a communications hub by (1) establishing it as a separate website, (2) adding more analytics for us, and (3) connecting it to social media sites which have user-generated news links such as Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. These changes are more than superficial. It turns out that all my efforts to increase traffic actually helped BlogSpot more than it helped bring readers to my Blog.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In addition, I have changed the name of the blog to “<i style="">Open Source Adoption”</i> to reflect the change in the focus of my blog to more of a focus on open source software, software development, and business related concerns.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">These changes are designed to help bring together Black Duck’s and Koders.com’s communities.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">It is important to note, however, that I will maintain the personal writing style, stories and insights into culture and life. For example, I hope to update my blog posting on tomatoes this year. This blog will therefore not be strictly about business.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="">Gentle reader: Let me make the following recommendations:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <ul><li><span style="">Please update your bookmarks. This blog’s new URL is opensourceadoption.com.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <ul><li><span style="">Please update RSS feeds. The links have changed, so you have to update your RSS feeds.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <ul><li><span style="">If you don’t like RSS feeds, subscribe by email. We have added this email subscription feature based on reader requests.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <ul><li><span style="line-height: 115%;">Please use Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit and StumbleUpon user-generated news and blog links. You may need to create an account on these services, but it’s well worth it. <o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I'll see everyone on the other side.</span></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-67938726770237716472008-06-12T07:27:00.000-07:002008-06-13T08:27:23.321-07:00Software development gets agile<p class="MsoBodyText">Agile software development is a conceptual framework for software development that promotes development iterations, open collaboration, and adaptability throughout the lifecycle of the project. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoBodyText">There are many agile development methods; most minimize risk by developing software in short amounts of time. Software developed during one unit of time is referred to as an iteration, which typically lasts from two to four weeks. Each iteration passes through a full software development cycle: planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, and testing. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoBodyText">Agile software documentation is no different than software design and coding. It too is produced as required by stakeholders. An iteration may not add enough functionality to warrant releasing the product to market but the goal is to have an available release (without bugs) at the end of each iteration. With the conclusion of each iteration, stakeholders re-evaluate project priorities with a view to optimizing their return on investment.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoBodyText">It shouldn't come as a surprise that agile software development is on the rise. There are documented case studies of <a href="http://www.agilejournal.com/content/view/150/33/#_blank">BMC</a><span style="font-size:10;">, </span><a href="http://www.infoq.com/vendorcontent/show.action?vcr=295#_blank">Lockheed</a><span style="font-size:10;">, </span><a href="http://damonpoole.blogspot.com/2008/05/agile-case-study-litle-co.html#_blank">Litle</a><span style="font-size:10;">,</span> and others that demonstrate their adoption of agile development and the resulting expansion. It also turns out that companies using open source software tend to use an agile development methodology. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoBodyText">We believe that one of the “demand drivers” of Black Duck products is agile development. Agile is not a requirement for Black Duck adoption, but if a company is doing software releases in short iterations, they have strong incentives to accelerate development through reuse – from either source code management systems, open source code repositories, third parties, or various combinations of all three – and they will look to automate their development processes.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoBodyText">See, recycling is never a bad thing.<o:p></o:p></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-15113714347479463342008-06-11T11:55:00.000-07:002008-06-12T13:28:14.953-07:00GPL and Related License Adoption Rates<p class="MsoNormal">Black Duck led the industry by introducing an accurate depiction of GPLv3, LGPLv3 project adoption and usage in graphical and tabular formats. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For those of you who may not have noticed Black Duck has expanded our <a href="http://www.blackducksoftware.com/oss">Open Source License Resource Center</a> by introducing <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">AGPLv3</a> adoption and usage. Once again, the numbers displayed are accumulated month-to-month. The data is updated daily and the current month's statistics are to date only.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tracking AGPL is important because it represents a separate platform for Web and Software-as-a-Service (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service">SaaS</a>) applications.<span style=""> </span>It is relatively new, approximately half the age of the GPLv3, but if broadly adopted will expand the reach of FOSS licensing to many places it has not impacted before:<span style=""> </span>Web and SaaS applications, portals, e-commerce and search sites, and others.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s worth watching. </p>What do you think about AGPL as an OSS license?Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-48355612684616753272008-06-09T21:04:00.000-07:002008-06-09T21:09:36.838-07:00Black Duck Named to SD Times 100Black Duck Software has been named to the 2008 SD Times 100 and w<span style="color: black;">e are honored to be included on this prestigious list and to be recognized as a company meeting the ever- expanding and ever-evolving needs of developers worldwide. </span>The list recognizes the leaders, innovators and influencers in software development. Black Duck was honored in the Tools category, which acknowledges companies that help developers “churn out functional and usable code.”<br /><br />In short, at Black Duck we help <span style="color: black;">developers, attorneys and company management work together – especially on a geographically distributed basis -- to find, select and use open source and third party components. This results in greater efficiencies. <o:p></o:p></span><o:p> </o:p> <p class="MsoNormal">Alan Zeichick, Editorial Director of BZ Media's SD Times, said "The software development industry is led by innovation. When choosing the 2008 SD Times 100, we carefully considered each organization’s products and services, reputation with development managers, and the new ideas and thought leadership that it has brought to the industry. Thanks to the SD Times 100 winners, like Black Duck, the art and science of software development continues to advance at a rapid pace."</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">SD Times</span> is written for software development managers, has more than 60,000 subscribers in more than 131 countries.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-70487123649925794722008-06-04T13:16:00.000-07:002008-06-10T10:52:47.646-07:00Black Duck in the SDTimes 100<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DogNUoqIUqbeFEI7HjDdAC03ic8UJUHFGoQ7cIzNWLRHvveZzLzOE628AAhe_-OotKXfMkv06ZKoJyhzxkKgGnhhlRy766pfWX-TAsF0HBn9FKw5q2_CDDvRngIbkn4g1ph20g593NI/s1600-h/2008SDT100_logo_120x124.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DogNUoqIUqbeFEI7HjDdAC03ic8UJUHFGoQ7cIzNWLRHvveZzLzOE628AAhe_-OotKXfMkv06ZKoJyhzxkKgGnhhlRy766pfWX-TAsF0HBn9FKw5q2_CDDvRngIbkn4g1ph20g593NI/s200/2008SDT100_logo_120x124.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208125859892204418" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=32287">SD Times</a> bestowed another distinction on Black Duck naming us one of 100 “companies, tools and open-source projects that made December 2007 a far more productive and efficient time to code than January 2007”.<br /><br />Team Black Duck: Nicely done!<br /><p class="MsoNormal"></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-14038096404938977072008-06-04T13:06:00.000-07:002008-06-04T13:10:45.852-07:00Corporate Application Development in NA & Europe<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial;">Summary from Forrester Research survey of</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" >526 North American and 270 European companies<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span>(multiple responses accepted)</span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“For custom-developed applications, which development platforms do you use?”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 354px; height: 172px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><col style="width: 150pt;" width="200"> <col style="width: 35pt;" width="47"> <col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="height: 15pt; width: 150pt;" height="20" width="200"><br /></td> <td class="xl68" style="width: 35pt;" width="47"><span lang="IT">N.A. %</span></td> <td class="xl68" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"><span lang="IT">Europe %</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20"><span style="" lang="IT">Microsoft .NET </span></td> <td class="xl66">68%</td> <td class="xl66">52%</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">Mainframe or midrange platforms</td> <td class="xl66">45%</td> <td class="xl66">34%</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">Proprietary 4GLs</td> <td class="xl66">27%</td> <td class="xl66">19%</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">Java, Java EE, J2EE</td> <td class="xl66">48%</td> <td class="xl66">47%</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">Rich interface in a browser</td> <td class="xl66">38%</td> <td class="xl66">36%</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td class="xl65" style="height: 15pt;" height="20">Open Source frameworks</td> <td class="xl66">15%</td> <td class="xl66">16%</td> </tr> </tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size:78%;"><o:p></o:p>Source: Forrester Research, <st1:city st="on">Enterprise</st1:City> And SMB Software Survey, North America And <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place>, Q3 2007</span><o:p></o:p></span>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-76529190422642611062008-05-29T20:21:00.000-07:002008-05-29T20:22:58.076-07:00Microsoft's mesh-ianic complex<p class="MsoNormal">Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Both <span class="bodybold">Nietzsche and <a href="http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/#/?em2933=183848_-1__0_%7E0_-1_5_2008_0_0">Kanye West</a> famously used these words.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>That was the message that came across loud and clear during Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's talk on Wednesday at the Sanford Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference. Ozzie argued that competition from Google and free and open source software (FOSS) have forced Redmond to innovate instead of resting on their Windows/Office laurels. A cynic might reply that Microsoft has little choice in the matter if it wants to stay in business. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>But what I found most interesting about Ozzie's talk was what he said about the future of computing. In a word: <i>mesh</i>. As May Jo Foley <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1418">blogged</a> at ZDNet.com, Ozzie continued to talk up distributed, mesh-like operating systems, possibly beyond Windows. To make that happen, Ozzie stressed the need for software development kits (SDKs) that can be used across many different devices. Just coincidentally, Microsoft is moving in this direction with its much-discussed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Mesh">Live Mesh</a> and accompanying Live Mesh SDK.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>Software developers are taking a wait-and-see attitude regarding Live Mesh, but remain hopeful in part because of the success of Visual Studio. As one of them wryly <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7362144.stm">commented</a> to BBC News technology reporter Maggie Shiels, “The proof is in the pudding but at the moment it's all demo-ware and advertising.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>Microsoft has a huge opportunity to earn some serious street-level support in the years to come by meshing well with the likes of Apple, Google and YouTube. An open mesh sandbox – supporting open standards and FOSS – will go a long way to deliver the hearts and minds of developers.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-57214612859713519102008-05-24T10:30:00.000-07:002008-05-26T18:39:02.507-07:00Open source software on Windows? You bet.<p class="MsoNormal">A few weeks ago I blogged about <a href="http://bduck1.blogspot.com/2008/05/microsoft-makes-its-peace-with-open.html">Microsoft's new if-you-can't beat-them-join-them attitude towards open source software</a>. But have you noticed how much open source software already runs on Windows? </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sure, everyone knows about Firefox, now used on <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9907299-16.html">nearly one-fifth of all corporate (mainly Windows) desktops</a>, but there's so much more on offer than just Firefox these days. Surf over to <a href="http://www.opensourcewindows.org/">Open Source Windows</a>, and you'll see what I mean. Here are a few categories you'll find: Instant Messaging, Email, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Sound Recording, FTP, IRC, Security, and even Accounting. It's a whole new world out there for Windows desktop users – and I haven't even mentioned <a href="http://bduck1.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-source-gets-saas-y.html">open source SaaS</a>.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-8040457142690340002008-05-24T05:29:00.001-07:002008-05-27T12:53:24.527-07:00IP is no laughing matter ... or is it?<p class="MsoNormal">PatentlySilly.com is a humorous outpost on the Web that catalogs the latest and greatest of the oddball patents that get awarded in the U.S. each month. Reading about these actual patents is great -- the <a href="http://www.patentlysilly.com/patent.php?patID=6988954">Weed Cutting Golf Club</a> and <a href="http://www.patentlysilly.com/patent.php?patID=7114465">Pet Operated Ball Thrower</a> are two of my recent favorites. PatentlySilly.com is a little like <a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/index">The Onion</a>, but for real. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And that brings me to my main point: developing software as a corporate asset and intellectual property is serious business. At Black Duck, we've built our entire company around empowering organizations that engage in component-based software development – that is, almost every company that builds software – to successfully navigate the IP waters by managing licensing issues for all the open source code they find and reuse.<o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Without the threat of lawsuits hanging over their heads, these companies can focus on what's really important – planning the next corporate weed golf.</p> Have a great holiday weekend even if you don't play golf.Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-41997763973660118512008-05-21T17:35:00.000-07:002008-05-21T17:36:42.056-07:00Copyright is cool<p class="MsoNormal">This morning the highly affable <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/62/128/">Michael Geist</a> spoke at the informative <a href="http://www.meshconference.com/">Mesh08 conference</a> in Toronto. Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor and copyright expert, made a very persuasive case that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other Web 2.0 tools are very effective at influencing governments, companies, and communities.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Geist asserted we are in the midst of a “New Normal” where advocacy empowered by mashups and social networks is impacting public policy. But despite this New Normal, politics drives policy even as politicians are increasingly paying attention to the political ramifications of online advocacy. Geist cites the Canadian blog <a href="http://stevejanke.com/">Angry in the Great White North</a>, <a href="http://www.faircopyrightforcanada.ca/">Fair Copyright for Canada</a>, <a href="http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks">Wikileaks</a>, and <a href="http://opennet.net/">Open Net Initiatives</a>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Geist argues that people are interested in copyright because it impacts their daily lives, whether they use the Web for general use or as consumers. For example, hyperlinking to content is potentially libelous, as Geist himself found out last year (<a href="http://section15.blogspot.com/2007/05/micheal-geist-is-being-sued-by-wayne.html">Geist v. Crookes</a>), and the use of <a href="http://lessig.org/blog/2007/02/copyright_policy_orphan_works.html">orphan copyrighted material</a> (or material seemingly out of copyright) can also bring legal challenges. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">More significantly for music and other digital media fans, Geist is on a Richard Stallman-like crusade against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management">DRM</a>. He managed to convince many Canadians to oppose the government's anticipated copyright legislation (<a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6315846683">Fair Copyright for Canada</a> – the FaceBook global group he formed has 40,000 members) and government officials ended up withdrawing the proposed law. DRM isn't dead yet, though.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">With all these activities, and especially his fair copyright work, Geist looks like the <a href="http://www.lessig.org/">Larry Lessig</a> of Canada. I suspect that’s a moniker that he would embrace.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-18230164018401445092008-05-16T18:16:00.000-07:002008-05-16T18:26:54.587-07:00Windows on the XO laptop<p class="MsoBodyText">At a fund raiser last night for <a href="http://www.cityonahill.org/">City on a Hill</a> honoring Nicholas Negroponte, he said and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Hundred-Dollar-Laptop-Microsoft.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=One+Laptop+Per+Child&st=nyt&oref=slogin">the New York Times reports today</a> that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project will put Windows XP on the <a href="http://bduck1.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-love-affair-with-olpcs-xo-laptop.html">XO laptop</a> after becoming a Microsoft OEM. Adding Windows to the XO will add approximately $3 per unit for Microsoft’s licensing fee, and the extra hardware required to run dual-boot (running both Windows and Linux) systems will add another $15 to $17 or so to the cost of each machine. Limited runs will begin next month.</p> <p class="MsoBodyText">This is an important move by OLPC, one with serious consequences. “'I think our goals are dramatically enhanced with Microsoft's decision and this partnership because we will reach many more children,'' Negroponte told the <i>Times</i>. ''There are now many more countries prepared to look at the XO and collaborative learning and some of the things we stand for.''</p> <p class="MsoBodyText">The dual boot option will accommodate less-developed countries with needs for open source software and other OLPC functionality, and the need for business critical applications, like Office, supplied by Microsoft. This won’t mean that more adults will use XO; it will mean that children will have a longer run with XO and it won’t be relegated to lower school laptop use exclusively.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-66558737881017586992008-05-10T12:56:00.000-07:002008-05-12T01:11:39.991-07:00Microsoft makes its peace with open source software<p class="MsoNormal">Microsoft appears to be warming to open source software (OSS) over the past few years. It seems like a lifetime ago -- 2001, actually -- that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was calling Linux a “<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/">a cancer</a> that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches.” And Redmond's saber-rattling about unspecified <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/">patent violations</a> seems to have quieted down considerably.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sometimes the software world feels like the weather in New England -- just wait a while, and things will change. Now Microsoft has a <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/default.mspx">new site</a><span style=";font-family:";" > detailing its relationship with OSS. And the thing is, it really does have one these days. Surf over and see for yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" >You may be wondering, <i>What's Microsoft's angle?</i> A glance at the site's FAQ reveals this:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:";" >The Microsoft open source strategy is focused on helping customers and partners be successful in today's heterogeneous technology world. This includes increasing opportunities for business partners regardless of the underlying development model. In addition, it includes increasing opportunities for developers to learn and create by combining community-oriented open source with traditional commercial approaches to software development.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" >In other words, as </span>Microsoft General Manager of Platform Strategy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Hilf">Bill Hilf</a> puts it, Microsoft wants to make OSS a legitimate and important part of Microsoft's strategy and thinking. Don't expect them to open up the source code for Windows anytime soon, but at least this shows that Microsoft knows open source isn't going away (hence the language about “today's <span style=";font-family:";" >heterogeneous technology world”)</span>. Better to make the best of it instead of being left in the dust.<br /><br />The FAQ adds that <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/">CodePlex,</a> Microsoft's open source project hosting website, and <a href="http://port25.technet.com/">Port 25</a>, its public portal for the Open Source Software Lab at Microsoft, will continue to exist and provide ways for the Java world to use Microsoft and open source technologies together.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The new Microsoft site represents Microsoft's expansion of interest and positioning relative to OSS. It’s very positive and contributes to a larger case for OSS in the enterprise and in Microsoft's own accounts.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-16079401942316759232008-05-02T19:18:00.000-07:002008-05-03T20:41:42.458-07:00The risks of using FOSS<p class="MsoNormal">The <a href="http://www.software2008.com/">Software 2008</a> show within <a href="http://interop.com/lasvegas/">Interop 2008</a> in Las Vegas, Nevada, this week was well attended. Approximately 18,000 attended, according to the Interop powers-that-be. (I think that this number was real considering the salmon-run from the hotel into the convention center each morning and the crowds during lunch. This reinforces my belief that Las Vegas is back as a technology industry destination.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I was suffering from a nasty cold, but I enjoyed speaking on the <a href="http://www.software2008.com/education/open-source.php">“Open Source Governance: Recognizing & Dealing with the Risks of Free Software”</a> panel. There were around 50 people in the audience, mostly from IT, development, and legal spheres of influence. It goes without saying that audiences expect content directly related to the title and description of the panel. Several audience members left when the discussion moved towards open source benefits and did not focus on the risks.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Free and open source software (FOSS) provides incredible economic, productivity, technology/IP and many other benefits. However, if FOSS proliferation is not managed properly, it can lead to legal, technical, and/or organizational issues which can have negative consequences for a business. An increasing number of companies have recognized these realities and are adopting processes, technologies, and expertise to both foster and govern the use of FOSS within their companies. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Any discussion of FOSS risks should include a prominently highlighted caveat that when risk management is done right, it is straightforward, not disruptive, and not expensive. It’s just part of the FOSS adoption process in all organizations, enterprises in general, and especially publicly held companies.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-53139810029080460652008-04-29T16:23:00.000-07:002008-05-04T17:32:21.419-07:00Twitter: Where’s the pony?<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="">Make no mistake: I love Twitter. I blogged about it </span><a href="http://bduck1.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-twitter.html"><span style="">here</span></a><span style="">. Since then I have used Twitter religiously on my BlackBerry, via Web clients, and on my laptop through FaceBook. It’s fun, stimulating, and informative.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="">With marginal revenue and no apparent business model, Twitter </span><a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/how_much_is_twitter_raising_and_how_much_is_it_worth_%20"><span style="">recently sought a $150 million valuation</span></a><span style=""> (that's "pre-money"), but seems to have settled for $60 million. According to several well-placed sources, that was good enough to get the company another </span><a href="http://www.news.com/8301-10787_3-9929792-60.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5"><span style="">another $15 million</span></a><span style=""> in a third round of VC funding. </span><span style="">Last summer </span><span style="">it raised $5 million on a $20 million valuation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="">So where is the pony from a enterprise value and VC point of view? That remains to be seen, especially given Twitter's considerable challenges with revenue generation such as online advertising. Still, some VCs see gold in them thar hills, believing that Twitter's buzz will turn into bucks sometime in the near future. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="">For a few more thoughts about valuing Twitter, see </span><a href="http://www.centernetworks.com/twitter-monetization-2"><span style="">here</span></a><span style="">, </span><a href="http://www.calacanis.com/2008/01/02/the-three-business-models-that-make-twitter-a-billion-dollar-bus/"><span style="">here</span></a><span style="">, </span><a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/04/25/six-ways-twitter-can-make-money/"><span style="">here</span></a><span style="">, and </span><a href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/01/02/twittersBusinessModel.html"><span style="">here</span></a><span style="">. Some analysts talking about Twitter have resorted to arguing that </span><a href="http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2007/07/26/the_twitter_les.html"><span style="">business plans and early profitability are overrated</span></a><span style="">. Maybe it's just me, but that sounds suspiciously similar to the arguments dotcom investors made around 1999. And just how many of their beloved Web startups are still around in 2008?<o:p></o:p></span></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-40622723088257801672008-04-28T13:22:00.000-07:002008-04-28T13:28:57.433-07:00Pravda Coverage<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioKMsr_puiTyFBB_Us4H2drba4UUTigGgMUsB25VTzJclkNcDrq7POnybv-oBWfjj9zl7Z6iYGn0WTSEC0_6VfN0_olHG_VFXaDCGXZ8QGcXNaFDv2kE4lA8AFkLvZj4DX2W1OADU6vU/s1600-h/Black+Duck+Software+acquires+Koders%27+assets+and+search+engine.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioKMsr_puiTyFBB_Us4H2drba4UUTigGgMUsB25VTzJclkNcDrq7POnybv-oBWfjj9zl7Z6iYGn0WTSEC0_6VfN0_olHG_VFXaDCGXZ8QGcXNaFDv2kE4lA8AFkLvZj4DX2W1OADU6vU/s200/Black+Duck+Software+acquires+Koders%27+assets+and+search+engine.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194395595881573954" border="0" /></a><br />Today Black Duck got heavy press coverage for acquiring Koders. (<a href="http://www.blackducksoftware.com/news/news">Here </a>for a selection of articles.)<br /><br />There is no question that my favorite article appeared in <a href="http://newsfromrussia.com/news/science/28-04-2008/105020-search_engine-0">Pravda </a>where they included a picture of a black duck they snapped themselves. Totally cool.Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-35022677495361853372008-04-27T10:10:00.000-07:002008-04-28T02:15:32.991-07:00Black Duck Software Acquires Koders, Inc.<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blackducksoftware.com/">Black Duck Software</a> has acquired the assets of Koders, Inc., the company that launched <a href="http://www.koders.com/">koders.</a>com, a popular on-line search engine for open source software and other Web-downloadable code. Koders.com gets over 30,000 developers each day searching and accessing open source code, methods, examples, algorithms, and solutions in over 766 million lines of code written in over 30 languages and identified with 28 software licenses.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>With this acquisition, Black Duck is doing even more to help software development teams find, reuse, and manage open source software by incorporating Koders’ search capability into our highly successful open source product portfolio. Specifically, the combination of Koders software code search engine with Black Duck’s <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Code</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>, released in the first quarter of this year, is very exciting, and protexIP customers will benefit as well.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Black Duck will add code and metadata from the Black Duck KnowledgeBase to Koders’ search database, the industry’s most complete database of open source and third-party code, containing more than 520 million code files, representing many billions of lines of code.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Black Duck now offers the industry’s most comprehensive array of capabilities for incorporating open source software into application development:</p> <ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style="">Code search</b>: With Koders, Black Duck gains a powerful code search engine that can search for specific code functions or solutions in repositories across the Internet. </li></ul> <ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style="">Component search</b>: <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Black</st1:placename> <st1:placename st="on">Duck</st1:placename> <st1:placename st="on">Code</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place> enables development teams to search a KnowledgeBase containing hundreds of thousands of open source components.<span style=""> </span>Developers can internally publish a catalog of approved open source components to facilitate reuse within their own organizations. </li></ul> <ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style="">Fragment/File search</b>: Black Duck protexIP automates the review of code and finds unapproved code fragments, files, or entire components that were integrated into a code base without adhering to a company’s open source review policies. This capability can be used to uncover licensing violations, security issues, unsupported open source code, and outdated code.</li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal">Going forward, we are committed to maintaining and improving the koders.com site as a free resource.<span style=""> </span>All of us at Black Duck are excited to be doing even more to advance the cause of open source software. The revolution continues.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-32627500036987658672008-04-24T18:13:00.000-07:002008-04-24T18:16:43.877-07:00Open source gets SaaS-y<p class="MsoNormal">When you think of open source software (OSS), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service">Software as a Service (SaaS)</a> might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but<a href="http://www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=7886&TopicID=9"> OSS plays a role in SaaS</a> just the same. It's there in CRM offerings from <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/">Salesforce.com</a>, <a href="http://www.rightnow.com/">RightNow Technologies</a>, and <a href="http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/">SugarCRM</a>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">A new Gartner Group report -- <a href="http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=618012">Open Source in SaaS, 2008</a> – notes that while OSS plays a big role in SaaS infrastructure now, that role will grow even larger over the next few years. In fact, Gartner predicts that a whopping 90 percent of SaaS providers will use some amount of open source software by 2010. This won't guarantee cheaper or even better products, of course, but the trend is certainly a vote of confidence in the power of OSS to fuel the growth of SaaS. The key to open source SaaS in the long term will be having the right mix of platform, community, and developers.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-43750089707409833992008-04-23T19:23:00.000-07:002008-04-23T19:25:03.947-07:00American broadband in the slow lane<p class="MsoNormal">Last month there came the news that <a href="http://bduck1.blogspot.com/2008/03/isnt-it-time-united-states-developed.html">eight countries beat the U.S. in broadband penetration</a>. Now there's <i>another</i> new report, this time from the Economic Policy Institute, confirming that the United States is <a href="http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20080423">pulling up the middle</a> when it comes to “high-speed internet penetration.” Out of 30 countries surveyed, the U.S. ranks 15<sup>th<span style=""> </span></sup><span style=""> </span>with 22 high-speed connections per 100 residents. By contrast, Denmark tops the list with 34 high-speed connections per 100 residents, followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea, and Norway.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It gets worse when you look at new broadband technologies. For example, 35% of Japan's broadband connections are fiber optic, versus just 3% for the U.S. Average download speeds in Japan are 61-megabits per second, while the average U.S. broadband user has to make due with 1.9-megabits per second. It isn't a pretty picture, to say the least.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last fall <a href="http://bduck1.blogspot.com/2007/09/dl-goes-to-washington.html">I testified before Congress</a> on this very issue, stressing how vital higher-speed broadband is to American competitiveness in the global economy. A half a year later, I feel compelled to ask the politicians the same question that's in those Verizon commercials: <i>Can you hear me now?<o:p></o:p></i></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-83778089658934166552008-04-22T17:55:00.000-07:002008-04-22T17:58:03.128-07:00A beautiful day in the open source neighborhoodMr. Rogers could have been singing about open source software (OSS), with all the good news that seems to be coming out these days.<o:p> </o:p> <p class="MsoNormal">First there's a new report from the Standish Group that calculates <a href="http://www.cnet.com/8301-13846_1-9920202-62.html">open source software saves companies $60 billion a year</a> over proprietary software. That's <i>billion</i> with a “b.” Of course the Standish Group spins this as “a real loss of $60 billion in annual revenues to software companies,” but we all know what that means – organizations are looking for the cost savings and performance benefits that only OSS can deliver, and it seems they can't replace their proprietary software quickly enough.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Then there's even more good news from the analysts at IDC. They state that the market for <a href="http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/537405.html">quality assurance and testing of OSS</a> is expected to grow by as much as 150% between 2007 and 2008. IDC is suggesting that the market for OSS will expand as companies tighten their belts during the expected recession, with the OSS service market growing right along with it. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">As my good friend Dave Rosenberg <a href="http://www.cnet.com/8301-13846_1-9920202-62.html">blogged</a> over at CNET, “It's a great time to be an open source company.” I couldn't agree more.</p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-68941609519080056972008-04-21T11:42:00.000-07:002008-04-21T11:56:09.651-07:00Nantucket Conference 2008<p class="MsoNormal">The final <a href="http://www.nantucketconference.com/agenda.html">agenda</a> for this year's Nantucket Conference has been published. As a prior participant, I wanted to make sure that readers knew about it. Highlights of this year’s agenda include IDG CEO <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Joseph_McGovern">Pat<span style=""> </span>McGovern</a>, <a href="http://www.ideo.com/">IDEO</a> CEO Tim Brown, <a href="http://www.maven.net/">Maven Networks</a> CEO Hilmi Ozguc (a General Catalyst company that was recently acquired by Yahoo), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Metcalfe">Bob Metcalfe</a>, and <a href="http://www.enernoc.com/">EnerNOC</a> CEO Tim Healy.<span style=""> </span>The sessions are always well organized and moderated but the networking over drinks and dinner is the best year-round in NE. I like this year’s “Game Changers” orientation and mix of cleantech, software, Internet and other companies, VC, markets and entrepreneurs. Too bad industry events that week will keep me on the road. Check it out <a href="http://nantucketconference.com/about.html">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-66711179357587998792008-04-17T18:36:00.000-07:002008-04-19T17:20:04.090-07:00Questioning the Gartner Report<span style="">Gartner’s SaaS-versus-OSS TCO finding triggered some of the most interesting responses to a </span><a href="http://www.talentfirstnetwork.org/wiki/index.php?title=Key_messages"><span style="">lecture</span></a><span style=""> I delivered yesterday at Carleton</span><span style=""> </span><span style="">University in Ottawa, Canada, on the state of Open Source Software. (Ottawa is the home of the Senators NHL hockey team, Renegades CFL football team, Lynx MLB baseball farm team, 67’s OHL hockey team, and the Wizards soccer club – if you didn’t know.) <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 14pt 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style="">The students, entrepreneurs, prof's and VC in the audience asked me great questions about the Gartner report: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <ul><li><span style="">Does this mean that enterprises in 2012 simply want applications residing in front of the firewall as opposed to installed on servers or storage systems in the data center? </span></li><li><span style="">Does this mean that virtualization vendors’ central value proposition will fade by 2012? <o:p></o:p></span></li><li>Does this hearken the return of the mainframe with its centralization and value per/MIP (old) and green (new) value proposition? </li><li><span style="">Does this mean </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing"><span style="">cloud computing</span></a> is a shoo-in<span style=";font-family:";font-size:10;" ></span>? </li><li><span style="">Won’t direct OSS costs diminish as the market matures?</span></li><li><span style="">Or, does this mean that OSVs are expected to hike their prices in 2010 and 2011 and shift the cost curve to make SaaS more attractive? <o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 14pt 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p>In truth, it is almost always a combination of these factors that result in cost curve and associated adoption curve shifts. It is my experience that </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service"><span style="">SaaS</span></a><span style=""> applications (<a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.salesforce.com">SalesForce</a> in particular, but also </span><a href="http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp"><span style="">Constant Contact</span></a><span style="">, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.adessosystems.com">Adesso Systems,</a> and others) require customization, additional support beyond what is provisioned, and training is almost always needed. SaaS has many direct and hidden cost categories that are similar to OSS, but the IT value proposition is significantly clearer and more favorable. This value proposition is driving the adoption of cloud computing applications such as </span><a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/index.html"><span style="">Google Apps</span></a><span style="">.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 14pt 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style="">OSS consists of an operating system, infrastructure, middleware, applications, utilities, and so on. Many of these are free as in beer or free as in freedom. But OSS has hidden costs, such as training, documentation, consulting, and other costs. Did the Gartner research take these into account?<o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="">One question asked by a bright Carleton student is especially interesting and worth putting out there to readers: What about <i>open source</i> SaaS?<o:p></o:p></span>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-20261043420541759902008-04-17T18:33:00.000-07:002008-04-17T18:36:06.913-07:00Linux and TCO in 2012<a href="http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/whyusegartner-001.png"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Gartner</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> has spawned a debate with its latest Open Source Software (OSS) research. Gartner researchers asked more than fifty analysts to comment on the state of OSS in their respective areas of research, and the result was </span><a href="http://gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=638643&ref=g_sitelink"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The State of Open Source 2008</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> report. Among other findings, this report determined that by: <o:p></o:p></span> <ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 14pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2013 a majority of Linux deployments will have no real software TCO advantage over other operating systems; <o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2012 90% of enterprises will use open source either directly or in an embedded form; <o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2011 open source will dominate software infrastructure for cloud-based providers; and <o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2012 Software as a service (SaaS) will eclipse open source as the preferred enterprise IT cost-cutting method <o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-source-as-borg-resistance-is.html"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Radcliffe</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">, </span><a href="http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2008/04/07/all-your-software/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Fulkerson</span></a>,<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> and others have argued that the rate of OSS adoption will be much faster. Still, this is proving to be a seminal report. Already it has impacted the thinking of a lot of people in the </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">worlds of </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">OSS and SaaS the same way that Forrester Research's </span><a href="http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Report/Summary/0,1338,16288,FF.html"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Linux Tipping Point</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> IDC’s “Open Source Biggest Trend in 20 Years,” and Saugatuck Technology’s “Booming Support for Mission-Critical Application Workloads on Linux” were seminal when they were published in 2006.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-33044092529734239632008-04-09T18:25:00.000-07:002008-04-10T05:33:37.019-07:00My love affair with the OLPC's XO laptop<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >I have to admit I’ve fallen in love. (Sorry ladies, it's not <i>that</i> kind of love: I’m as constant as the Northern Star with respect to Susana.) My love affair involves a laptop. It happens so infrequently because there have been so few great breakthroughs in personal computing technology since I hauled around the Compaq Luggable in 1987. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >I'm not saying that because I’m a curmudgeon; I <i>can</i> fall in love with technology. To prove that point, let me admit that I’m a little bit giddy while writing this. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:";" >Here’s why: </span><span style=";font-family:";" >For the last week I've been using the “$100 laptop” by the folks at the </span><a href="http://www.laptop.org/"><span style=";font-family:";" >One Laptop Per Child foundation (OLPC)</span></a><span style=";font-family:";" >. OLPC founder</span><span style=";font-family:";" > </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/nicholas_negroponte/index.html?inline=nyt-per"><span style=";font-family:";" >Nicholas Negroponte</span></a><span style=";font-family:";" > </span><span style=";font-family:";" >gave one to Susana and me. Nicholas invested in MessageMachines, and I greatly admired him as an entrepreneur and an IT intellectual before he gave me the XO.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >The XO laptop -- it's called the XO because if you turn the logo 90 degrees, it looks like a child -- runs on Linux with a wide-ranging suite of open source applications for basic laptop users. The combination of an open source operating system and applications is the best means yet of lowering the total cost of ownership, which is open source software's (OSS) primary consumer benefit. Then there's the built-in wireless connectivity that helps bridge the digital divide by giving children worldwide access to a network-ready laptop. This fact alone makes Negroponte worthy of a Nobel Prize.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >What's interesting is that this OSS-based laptop will absolutely lead to proprietary software and hardware sales. While the XO doesn't come preinstalled with Microsoft XP or Vista, children and their teachers will need more sophisticated software applications, networking and hardware capabilities over time, so they'll graduate to higher-end hardware. There’s no CD/DVD drive in the XO at all, for example, and no hard drive and only a 7.5-inch screen. As the children grow up, they'll naturally migrate to proprietary products, which are fine with me. To adapt a phrase from Richard Stallman, I believe “the future is hybrid,” as opposed to purely open.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >More on the XO's openness: I discovered a button located on the keyboard that allows children to view the source code (what XO refers to as the “programming”) behind certain applications. The XO laptop’s highly accessible and flexible user-interface, called <i>Sugar</i>, also promotes sharing and learning. This makes the XO a true OSS machine, from its philosophical underpinnings all the way through its uncomplicated functional capabilities available with one touch of a keyboard button.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >My favorite feature is <i>The Neighborhood</i>, which provides, to quote the documentation, a<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >View of all the connected XO laptops within a child’s community, and what activities they are sharing. Each child is represented by a different color. If there is a shared document or activity being collaborated on by a number of children, it will show up within this view. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >The Neighborhood provides an easy-to-use view of the network meshwork in the neighborhood, but it also helps facilitate interactions with immediate “friends” and the building of a community. When combined with <i>The Friends</i>, <i>The Home</i>, <i>The Activity</i> views and <i>Browse</i>, XO provides all the elementary functionality of a desktop plus a means of stepping up to more advanced applications, such as <i>SynthLab</i> a mini-lab for acoustic- and electronic-circuit construction. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >For an adult, it takes a short time to adjust to XO's looks. It has a shiny green-and-white plastic outer cover, a handle and two leaf-like antennas. It looks like DreamWorks went out to create Shrek’s personal laptop based on a Fisher-Price design. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >The XO is spill-proof, rainproof, dustproof and ruggedized for impacts due to being dropped. There is no fan on this little wonder, it’s as silent as a Caribbean wind gust and it weighs just 3.2 pounds. It gets six hours of heavy activity or 24 hours of reading battery life from one charge. (The battery is made of innovative lithium ferro-phosphate, costing $10 to replace and is good for 2,000 charges, compared to 500 for a regular laptop battery.) It has a nifty built-in video camera and a screen that rotates into a tablet configuration. It also has a microphone, memory card slot, gamepad controllers and graphics tablet. The XO is the complete personal computing laptop for children and adults.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >There's just so much to love about the XO laptop. I look forward to seeing how it will give new hope to the children of the developing world. In 10, 20 or 30 years, I believe we'll witness a new generation of IT leaders who are getting their start even now on these small green-and-white machines. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >I really hope the Nobel Foundation is paying attention.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462402333180521227.post-8973500490478321092008-04-01T10:38:00.000-07:002008-04-01T10:49:38.597-07:00Huge First Quarter '08 OSV FundingAccording to <a href="http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/04/01/vc-funding-for-open-source-hits-an-all-time-high/">the 451 Group</a>, the first quarter of 2008 was a monster period for VC funding of open source ventures with the amount raised hitting $203.75m, up from $100.40m in the same quarter of 2007.<br /><p><img src="http://db.zoho.com/ZohoDBChart.png?OBJID=5845000000006075&WIDTH=400&HEIGHT=300&STANDALONE=true&privatelink=59445ef0d3c149c9a1043fa823205b4c" height="300" width="400" /> </p><br />Here are Matt Aslett's analysis:<br /><ul><li>The amount of funding in 1Q08 just beat the previous record, of $193.7m, set in 4Q06.</li><li>There were 20 open source funding deals announced in the quarter, beating the previous record of 17, set in 1Q05 and 4Q06.</li><li>Of those 20 funding deals, 17 had a disclosed value, giving an average deal size of $11.99m.</li><li>That is the second highest average deal size ever, behind the $13.84m recorded in 4Q06, when there were 14 deals with a disclosed deal value.</li><li>In comparison, there were 11 deals with a disclosed value in the first quarter of 2007, giving an average deal size of $9.13m.</li></ul><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://bduck1.blogspot.com/2007/12/trends-of-2008.html">My trends posting for 2008</a> did predict a general decline of venture funding for OSVs in favor of funding of software ventures with open source underpinnings. I still think this situation will happen but it appears more so in the future than in 2008.Doug Levinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170744611919315288noreply@blogger.com0