Should "open source" include open data?
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Open source is increasingly meaningless if the data it manages isn't open, too.  Should the Open Source Definition be expanded to include data provisions?
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Letter Can collective database licensing cure this tragedy of the commons?
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It's not so much that there aren't workable business models around Open Source. But life is so much easier when those models can include pieces that people have to pay for as well.
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ObjectsSearch Offers Open Source Search Results  Aiming to provide users with unbiased website ranking, ObjectsSearch.com has launched an open source search engine based on Nutch.org's search. ObjectsSearch looks to solve problems related to search result manipulation and information overload. ObjectsSearch claims that their open source approach provides an "alternative to commercial ...
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One great way to determine whether your digital product is destined for greatness is how many people want to steal it. The same goes for open source.
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Sara Golemon describes the path she took in a search for an OpenID library to work with in PHP. The trip took her through both PEAR and PECL with no promising results. Heading off to a Yahoo! search she comes up with one good result - Auth_OpenID.   Now, granted, this is the first OpenID system I've looked at, and I haven't really dug into it in depth, but I've got to say, this is some clean, well written code and the author clearly understands the maths involved (or at least fakes it shockingly good).   Knowing this, she asks "why isn't this in PEAR" if it's so well-structured and useful? It works with any version of PHP from 4 up and is smart enough to adapt itself to whatever the structure of your application might be.   There's also some great comments on the post where it's explained why the library isn't in PEAR, another OpenID package for PHP and suggestions for alternate distribution methods (PEAR channel).
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In How to sponsor an open source project?, Dave Winer says, I want the OPML Editor to run on Linux... and floats the idea of a bounty for the job.  He's taking comments here. Guidance: I'm looking for ideas, established practices, do's and don'ts for sponsoring an open source project, Dave says.
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Stick to the knitting Microsoft must work with, not against, open source otherwise it risks sacrificing developer support and credibility among customers - even Windows loyalists.â¦
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Open source has many good uses.  Beating up one's competitors shouldn't be the primary one.
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For anyone who has been using open source for a while, the current commercial enthusiasm for communities, collaboration, and all things Web 2.0, is rather amusing.  After all, the idea that users are not to be regarded simply as passive and grateful recipients of whatever is handed down to them from on high, but need to be treated as partners and participants who can make valuable contributions to the formulation and development of new products, is central to the way that free software works.  But some companies that are starting to dabble with Web 2.0 ideas are discovering that you have to be careful what you wish for when you solicit this kind of user feedback.  Just ask Michael Dell.
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Research: Businesses are going open source, but OS may still be too technical for most users. The open-source operating system Linux may be gaining a lot of ground in the enterprise space, but Windows will
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Blog: It's true that open source applications and infrastructure don't necessarily play well together today, as Microsoft suggests.  But it's also true that more than enough integration is in place for current market demand.
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The International PHP Magazine has posted the results from their latest poll conducted over the week. This time they asked developers what they looked for in a framework.   The options this time were:  An O-O MVC structure ORM / Active Record Good Controller Structure Ajax Interoperability Ability to Incorporate Testing Open Source/Free License Security Good Helpers Scaffolding  With the first option "an OO MVC structure" leading the pack with almost twenty percent. Next in line was (in order of votes): having an Open Source/fre license, bundled with good helpers, good security, and a good controller structure.   Be sure to check out their latest poll too. It asks about security architectures and what developers out there think they should contain.
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The Open Solutions Alliance, a nonprofit group backed by a number of commercial open source vendors, released a survey on Wednesday that found interoperability is a foremost concern among open source software customers.The group, which includes CollabNet, EnterpriseDB, and others, contended in a statement that if its members overcome interoperability challenges, they stand to &quot;out-Microsoft Microsoft by offering a fully interoperable suite of business tools.&quot;&quot;We think interoperability has to be a core feature [of open source software] from the very beginning,&quot; OSA&#39;s president, Dominic Sartorio, said in an interview. &quot;Most commercial open source companies are finding a good amount of success. But how many opportunities are they leaving on the table because they&#39;re not interoperable?&quot;The OSA singled out Microsoft, as opposed to Oracle or SAP, because its member companies mostly target midmarket customers, according to Sartorio. &quot;We have one common competitor: Microsoft.&quot;OSA derived the study&#39;s findings from a series of forums it held this year in Europe and the United States. It said some 100 people attended the events.Participants cited a variety of interoperability scenarios and concerns, including single sign-on for identity management.Another involved user interface interoperability. &quot;A lot of people try to plug open source projects into an enterprise portal, and they want a unified look and feel,&quot; Sartorio said.Customers also cited cross-platform portability and data integration challenges.In addition, the study found that:-- Lower up-front cost was the most important driver for adoption of open source products, but this was tempered by concerns that spending on support and services would be greater. That feeling in turn was mitigated by a belief among respondents that open source products will become more mature over time and easier to support.-- Few customers cited the ability to customize source code as a selling point for open source applications, preferring instead that it handle their needs out of the box.Sartorio said OSA&#39;s work will continue in 2008. &quot;This is going to be an ongoing effort. We&#39;re scratching the surface here with issues customers brought up in these forums,&quot; he said.
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Self assembly Open source is moving beyond the real worlds of business and consumer systems into the more experimental sphere of personal gadgetry.â¦
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'It's just a f*cking kernel...' NSFW Richard M. Stallman has never had much truck with the re-branding campaign that gave the world the phrase "open source". Stallman, who authored the original General Public License to give legal muscle to his desire to ensure software freedoms are not curtailed, has always declined to count himself as a member of any "open source movement".â¦
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(InfoWorld) - A new U.K. think tank launched on Monday will analyze how open-source software can be used in government and the private sector. The National Open Center, based in Birmingham, England, will be composed of working groups that will study open-source issues, such as the use of standards and procurement guidelines, said Ed Downs, of the National Computing Center, a professional IT membership organization. Unlike other European countries, the U.K. lacked an organization dedicated to studying open-source software, he said. "If open source and open standards can make a contribution, that's what we want to do," Downs said. Many of the innovations on the Internet would not have been possible without open-source softwareÂ like the Apache Web server, said Scott Thompson, one of the founders of the National Open Center. Companies like GoogleÂ and Yahoo use open source to drive down their software costs, he said. Open source helps avoid such trapsÂ as vendor lock-in and higher costs associated with proprietary software, he said. But using open source is fraught with risks as well as opportunities. Many public sector agencies are ignorant about open source, and misguided procurement policies have complicated open-source implementations, said John Pugh, a member of Parliament. Some open-source companies have also struggled in selling their products and services, while their continued viability has been sometimes questionable, Pugh said. The politics around open-source software are bitter, he said. "Open source has enemies, and its enemies are very, very close to government," Pugh said. MicrosoftÂ believes organizations don't care whether their software is open source or proprietary as long as it's the best product, said Jerry Fishenden, the company's U.K. national technology officer, who attended the launch. About 5 percent of the total IT spend in the U.K. is actually on the software itself with the rest comprised of consulting fees, system integration costs, and more, Fishenden said. Those costs are where organizations could make significant savings, he said. Â