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Dom Mar 13 02:45:42 CET 2005

http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/03/10/1852219&from=rss

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Conference discusses why 'everybody needs an open source strategy'
Thursday March 10, 2005 (08:00 PM GMT)
By: Jay Lyman

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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Far away from the usual open source software industry focus
on code, freedom, and evangelism, the InnoTech conference and expo held here
this week centered on the business of open source for business' sake. Sure
there was talk about the advantages of Linux and open source technology, the
ability to impact operating system-level functionality, and fighting
unwarranted fears of a different model, but the heart of the conference was
the beat of business -- cutting costs, driving value, and saving time and grief.

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"I've worked for IBM in Linux for more than six years, and it has become big
business for us," said IBM Linux Technology Center vice president Dan Frye,
who sat on a panel discussing how open source software has gone from fad to
phenomenon to fact of life in business. "It's a fundamental part of IBM's
business. We're not into Linux and open source because it's cool. It's nice
that it's cool, but it's good business. We're making billions."

New approach by old businesses

Frye was joined on the panel by heads of companies and firms that had
successfully leveraged open source software, development, or related services
-- some in combination with proprietary products -- and reported on the state
of the new industry in the eyes of old business.

"I tell customers that everybody needs an open source strategy," Frye said.
"They need to know what they're going to do. Open source and Linux-based
solutions are giving them what they need -- faster, cheaper better -- today."

Andrew Aitken, founder and managing partner of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based
open source consulting firm Olliance Group, said that after the birth of Linux
operating system distributors, open source "pure plays" such as Sleepycat,
Zend and JBoss, the industry was now on the brink of the third stage of open
source companies, many of which are old players with a new open source
approach: SAP, BEA, CA, and Adobe.

"We're seeing more and more traditional, large vendors looking at how can they
leverage their technology and open source," said Aitken, who moderated the
session.

He indicated that startups are also a significant segment of the latest open
source wave and that new companies are successfully securing funding from
venture capitalists who now look for open source.

LaVonne Reimer, executive director of the Open Technology Business Center in
Oregon, said open source was important to any tech startup for three reasons:
it gets the attention of VCs, it forms the basis of a major technology change
under way, and it is increasingly the answer, or at least part of the answer,
to the problems that customers want solved.

'Big changes afoot' for new businesses

"If you're starting a company today, you understand there are big changes
afoot in computing that affect technology, and software, and chips," she said.

Bill Campbell, a lawyer and partner with the technology law firm Ater Wynne,
said his organization's interest in open source intersected with the firm's
desire to "help people build great companies." Campbell's firm was home to
Diane Peters, who is now general counsel for the Open Source Development Labs
(OSDL), and the group has represented OSDL in some of its endeavors, Campbell
said.

The attorney likened the open source business model to his own profession in
an effort to illustrate that the ideas of openness are not necessarily new.

"Intellectual property is at the center of my profession, and it's all open
source," he said, making reference to the law. "We sell expertise as an
application."

Acknowledging confusion in the business world over what "open source" really
means, Campbell said those new to the concepts of openness and freedom often
mistakenly think open source only comes in one flavor.

"Which isn't the reality," he said. "[Open source] is really a philosophy -- a
realization that building on an open platform, even turning your own platform
into a widely available, transparent code, can be incredibly profitable."

Campbell likened a look ahead to peering into the fog, and stressed that open
source software was being driven not only by technology, but also by changes
in economic philosophy and "the way you go to market."

Concern that this might be the next bursting bubble

Among the Innotech attendees, there was a sense of concern that open source
had become such a hot topic that it might turn into the next bursting bubble
and suffer the same letdowns that hit PCs, the Internet, and the dot-coms.
However, there was also an appreciation that the basic business advantages of
open source software and open technology -- less cost, faster deployment, and
flexibility among others -- were forcing industry to look beyond hype and
seriously contemplate the new model.

Axian CEO Frank Helle, whose Beaverton, Ore. company provides consulting on
both open source and proprietary systems and software, said the conference was
a good tech industry event for business people.

"Too often, it's a bunch of techies talking tech," he said. "This is good,
fundamental business. We're platform neutral and think the successful business
model really boils down not to either/or, it's both/and."

Helle, who was pleased to see there were no zealots from neither the
proprietary world nor the open so
-- 
Diego Saravia 
dsa en unsa.edu.ar