TheOpenAnalyst » Google

Can Google build open source communities

TheOpenAnalyst — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:46:00 +0000

While the Googlers want to talk today about improvements to GMail for mobile, there remains a serious concern for you to discuss this weekend.

Is Google really good at being part of an open source community?

There are three types of mobile source projects:

1. One-company projects.
2. Multiple-company projects.
3. Community projects, which may or may not have a commercial arm.

Can Google build open source communities | Open Source | ZDNet.com

Bottling the Magic Behind Google and Facebook

TheOpenAnalyst — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:30:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Cloudera is the quintessential Silicon Valley story.

Three of the top engineers from Google, Yahoo and Facebook have teamed up with an ex-Oracle executive to tackle the problems inherent in quickly analyzing big piles of data. On Monday, they’re revealing a commercial product based on the open source software Hadoop, which provides the analytical magic behind the world’s biggest Web sites. The team at Cloudera, based in Burlingame, Calif., think they can extend Web smarts to the business world, aiding companies in retail, insurance, bio-tech and oil and gas.

Hadoop is the open-source version of the file system and MapReduce technology developed by Google. Google has used such software to rewire its entire search index, making it possible for the company to run ever-faster searches on cheap servers and to ask questions of its vast data stores and receive coherent answers.

Bottling the Magic Behind Google and Facebook – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com

Google’s Power in Cloud Computing Could Lead to a “Repeat of Microsoft”

TheOpenAnalyst — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:55:00 +0000

Bloomberg has been rooting around the historical quotes of Christine Varney, Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division, and found a doozy from eight months ago calling Google a “monopoly in Internet online advertising” that could spell trouble for the US economy.

What’s more she said that Google’s gathering market power in cloud computing could lead to a “repeat of Microsoft.” She foresees the day when companies complain that Google won’t let them interoperate with Google’s product.

Google’s Power in Cloud Computing Could Lead to a “Repeat of Microsoft” | Open Source Magazine

Microsoft Open Source Code Is Part Of Google’s Chrome

TheOpenAnalyst — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:52:00 +0000

Much of the reader feedback to “Why Windows Must Go Open Source” is saying, “No way.” But part of my hypothesis is the fact that Microsoft as a developer culture is much less averse to such a move than Microsoft as a business culture. Consider the Windows Template Library, code that’s now part of Google’s browser, Chrome.

Microsoft’s Windows Template Library is a light version of Windows Foundation Classes, which provide an efficient way for calling user interface services out of the Windows API set. A browser needs to make use of certain Windows functions for its own operations to succeed as a window on the Web. WTL makes those services available.

Microsoft Open Source Code Is Part Of Google’s Chrome | InformationWeek

Open Source Developers Prefer Google’s Cloud over Microsoft’s – 40% of OSS devs plan to offer services instead of software

TheOpenAnalyst — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:35:00 +0000

Open source developers embrace in mass Google’s Cloud-based offerings, while steering clear of what Microsoft has to offer. The face-off between Microsoft and Google has put the two companies in the position of making inroads into each other’s traditional territory. While Google is moving onto the desktop with offerings such as the Chrome browser, Microsoft is reaching into the Cloud with solutions including the Windows Azure operating system. However, when it comes down to open source developers embracing the Cloud solution, a study put together by Evans Data indicates that Google has gained the upper hand compared with Microsoft.

The latest Evans Data Open Source Development survey indicates that no less than 40% of devs building open source projects will use Cloud providers in order to offer customers their applications via a browser as service. In this regard, Google, adept of the Software as Service business strategy, is preferred by the vast majority of open source developers, thanks to the Google App Engine, with no less than 28% of them adhering to the solution. Following Google is Amazon.com, with 15%, while Microsoft (with Software plus Services offerings) and IBM are “not nearly as popular.”

Open Source Developers Prefer Google’s Cloud over Microsoft’s – 40% of OSS devs plan to offer services instead of software | Softpedia

Is Web 2.0 Possible with Existing Open Source Technologies?

TheOpenAnalyst — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:14:00 +0000

If you Google “AJAX Web 2.0″ you’ll get over eight million hits, but what technologies will you find in that mix that can truly deliver on the promises of Web 2.0 today? While there’s no single definition of Web 2.0, at its heart lays the Internet acting as a platform for social networks, where information can be created and shared in a community of interest. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) relate to Web 2.0 concepts only in that they enhance the platform by providing a more effective user interface. AJAX relates to Web 2.0 only in that it provides a lightweight approach for developing RIAs that execute through a single ubiquitous interface, the Web browser.

An examination of the interaction models for existing social networking platforms like wikis and blogs reveals that they lack the instantaneous nature of true human interaction. This is an artifact of the synchronous Web model that must be overcome when we consider next-generation platforms envisioned in the Web 2.0 spectrum. Internet-based chat is the most basic example of the near-instantaneous interaction that Web 2.0 demands, but even delivering these basic capabilities in a scalable, lightweight, browser-based mechanism is beyond the scope of most AJAX technologies. In fact, if you sift through those eight million Google hits, you’ll find only a handful of open source technologies that address the problems associated with pushing content asynchronously to the user through standard browser mechanisms. We’ll provide an overview of those technologies later, but first some basics.

Is Web 2.0 Possible with Existing Open Source Technologies? | SOA World Magazine

Google opens Jaiku source code

TheOpenAnalyst — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:14:00 +0000

Google revealed Wednesday that it will be discontinuing its development of the Jaiku microblogging service and opening the source code. The service will remain in operation on Google App Engine and it will be maintained by a community of volunteer Google developers with the assistance of the broader open source software community. The move is part of a broader set of changes that Google is undertaking to streamline its service offerings and shut down some of its lesser-known web applications.

Developers will also be able to use App Engine to deploy their own custom instances of the Jaiku server code. The new version of the service includes support for the OAuth secure authorization standard. The source code will be available under the Apache License.

Google opens Jaiku source code | Ars Technica

R, the Software, Finds Fans in Data Analysts

TheOpenAnalyst — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:40:00 +0000

To some people R is just the 18th letter of the alphabet. To others, it’s the rating on racy movies, a measure of an attic’s insulation or what pirates in movies say.

R is also the name of a popular programming language used by a growing number of data analysts inside corporations and academia. It is becoming their lingua franca partly because data mining has entered a golden age, whether being used to set ad prices, find new drugs more quickly or fine-tune financial models. Companies as diverse as Google, Pfizer, Merck, Bank of America, the InterContinental Hotels Group and Shell use it.

R, the Software, Finds Fans in Data Analysts | NYTimes.com

Nokia goes after Google with open-source Symbian

TheOpenAnalyst — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:02:00 +0000

Nokia has announced its Symbian mobile operating system will join the likes of Android and will become an open source operating system. The announcement was made Tuesday at the Smartphone Show in London and is seen as a bid to maintain and possibly grow its developer base. This move comes at the same time Google makes its Android source code available to developers. The Nokia news contradicts previous reports on Nokia adopting Android OS.

Nokia goes after Google with open-source Symbian | LinuxWorld