TheOpenAnalyst

You are browsing the archives of 2008 September.

Open source is supposed to encourage better software by allowing more eyes to inspect and correct existing source code and providing solid foundations on which new software projects and applications can be built. The technical value of opening source up to exploitation by all is supposed to outweigh the monetary value of selling closed copies.
Open [...]

Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU Project, speaks at great lengths about preserving the ideological purity of free software, and in his vision of the future, computer software development is modeled after mathematics and science research, where all research and development is open. So far as Stallman is concerned, proprietary software production is unethical [...]

Increasing numbers of businesses are using open-source software to develop technology ­ – the obvious attraction being the possibility of using, modifying and distributing the open-source code without paying a fee to the developer. But the business and financial risks surrounding the use of open source must also be taken into account because they can [...]

Computerworld has a very interesting article that reports even as Lehman Brothers was heading toward bankruptcy it invested $309M on technology and communications in the quarter ended Aug. 31. This figure represents a 9.5 percent year-to-year increase, which is down from the 18 percent increase, to $1.145 billion, in IT costs for the full year [...]

Lost in the rubble of the teetering titans of finance is an open question: what will happen to the open-source software that they have heavily modified and upon which many have built core business applications?
It’s a nontrivial question. Bank of America just acquired Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch was a heavy adopter of and modifier of [...]

IT organizations that feel safe from open source licensing violations might be wise to check their code, as open source components are rapidly seeping into applications by way of offshore and in-house developers taking open source shortcuts, as well as a growing population of open source-savvy grads entering the workforce.
“With all of these new aspects, [...]

Microsoft continued to make its case on Tuesday that it is a friend to open source, listing a number of efforts it has undertaken in spaces ranging from Linux to virtualization and rich Internet application technology.
Traditionally, Microsoft has been viewed as the commercial counterpoint to the open-source movement. But the company’s presentation on Tuesday at [...]

Viet Nam’s open-source developers have joined Moblin.org, an international open-source community by adding a Vietnamese interface on the website as well as launching a competition among Vietnamese coders.
The community of open-source developers now has six members, the US, Japan, China, India, and Brazil and Viet Nam.
Viet Nam News

One of the things that drive success in online games such as World of Warcraft is the community and ecosystem that surround the game itself. This is much akin to open source where projects grow and become successful as individuals become part of the whole.
How we define our individual identities and the forms of social [...]

Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra and Secretary of Education Tom Morris has released a Request for Collaboration (RFC) to career and technical centers, school divisions, and institutions of higher education calling for assistance in the development and publication of an open source physics “Flexbook” for Virginia.
The Virginia Physics “Flexbook” project is a collaborative effort of [...]