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March 28, 2006
Hippo announce Open Source CMS
Arje proudly announces that Hippo are releasing the Hippo CMS under the Apache 2.0 license.
Posted by Matthew at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)
A logo is born
SourceSense have a logo. Congratulations! They didn't go for my favorite, but the one they picked is pretty cool too.
Posted by Matthew at 05:41 PM | Comments (0)
Reaping the rewards in Open Source
We live in a rewards society. Do this and you'll get that. Work hard and your boss will give you a bonus, some additional options or a better position. Want your kids to do their homework or tidy their room - you “motivate” them by letting them watch TV longer than usual afterwards. Buy two - get one free. Fly this airline and collect your bonus miles. The list is endless.
Motivation is increasingly channelled through the carrot dangling in front of us. However, psychologists tell us that constant rewarding is a bad thing. Attention shifts from the thing we were doing to the reward we will get. We lose our motivation to work at our job and our attention shifts to working out how we can best get the next reward.
True Open Source communities work differently. The reward to be gained by committing code, documentation or time isn't tangible. If you're lucky, then there will be an email of recognition, a pat on the back or link in a blog. But that's it. There is no rule as to how much reward you will get (if anything), what you need to do to get that reward or the frequency of rewarding. Community members are motivated by what they do, not the reward they hope to get from someone else.
Now however, Open Source communities are increasingly becoming reward societies. Companies start paying committers if they fix this bug or add this enhancement. Bounty-systems are being suggested to get people to fix bugs. Committers are rewarded with a highly-paid job in a shiny new Open Source startup if they do good work. VCs are prepared to reward Open Source ventures with lots of carrots. Open Source ventures are being built with the reward of being bought out by an incumbent software vendor. The list is growing and all this influences the underlying communities.
If this trend continues, then the motivation inside the communities will shift from scratching the itch, to working out how best to reap the next reward. This will fundamentally change how Open Source communities work.
I’m not judging this as either a bad or a good thing and indeed I don’t think that judgement is really important. It is however something that we need to take into consideration as Open Source slowly morphs into “something else”.
Actually, the above isn't strictly true as the reward of recognition is something that motivates many Open Source community members. At the same time, this reward is given by a peer and after you have done something out of your own motivation. The reward of recognition isn't traded inside the community to get people to do something. Compare how we present the reward of "more TV" to our kids upfront to get them to do something or how your boss dangles the bonus-reward in front of you at the beginning of the year - "if you reach this goal by the end of 2006, you will get this amount".
Posted by Matthew at 10:39 AM | Comments (1)
March 24, 2006
Picking an Open Source business logo
Which Sourcesense logo would you choose? The finalists are all really good and I'm sure choosing one isn't going to be easy. My favorite would be this one (logo 1).
Posted by Matthew at 03:58 PM | Comments (3)
March 22, 2006
Copying the sunlight
A story is currently unfolding in Germany that stands to illustrate the fact that what we are lead to believe may not be quite the truth after all.
A couple of weeks ago, 3 young men shot into the limelight in Germany because a song they had recorded ("Wo bist Du mein Sonnenlischt") was being plugged in various German weblogs and gained hype by the hour. They recorded a video for the song and it was uploaded to YouTube, where it became an instant success. Now the young men sing and perform badly. No, really badly. But the whole concept became cult and within a few days, the young men were on national TV, had a record deal and their song had been turned into a ringtone.
However, the sunlight is starting to fade. It turns out that in fact the music has been copied from a Canadian tune, the lyrics were mostly copied from a youth-unemployment musical training program and all that is really original "Grup Tekkan" is in fact the off-key singing and bad performance. Things are still unfolding, the actual copyright-holders for the various bits and pieces still in negotiations, but as Spiegel.de reports, this may mean that around 60.000 produced silver disks stand to be left in their boxes this coming Friday (the scheduled launch of the single).
Posted by Matthew at 12:32 PM | Comments (1)
March 21, 2006
Google Finance launches
Google has finally launched the long-awaited finance site. At the moment, the page is not much different from what you would find elsewhere. If you sign in you can create your own portfolio. However the FAQ reveals some interesting details on what they have planned.
Posted by Matthew at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2006
Joining the feathers
I've joined Susie and Ian and will be helping out with the ASF's public relations efforts.
Posted by Matthew at 07:58 PM | Comments (1)
It just doesn't matter
Ever since I read this article on how the guys from 37signals try and focus on what really matters when developing software, I've been reflecting on how the "it just doesn't matter" meme can also be applied to our everyday life. We really spend far too much time worrying about or caught up in endless discussions about things that - in the end - just don't matter. Our life becomes increasingly cluttered with all these things and yet we find it harder and harder to let go. Today, someone I respect an awful lot and who really changed my life a few years ago let go of something and will now get on with things that really do matter. See you on the beach.
Posted by Matthew at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)
XBox Live - it's music now
Microsoft seem to be testing the waters on how to provide a music offering (or more) with the XBox platform. In a first move, you can now download an "Artist of the Month" music video from the XBox Live Marketplace. From the press release:
Our goal has always been to make Xbox Live a cutting-edge entertainment experience, said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of the Interactive tainment Business at Microsoft.
Notice how he doesn't use the word "game" in there. Considering that demos you can download from the marketplace weigh in at around 700 MBs, then it's not hard to imagine that Microsoft may soon be announcing a "film of the month" or "TV series of the month". They already have a payment system in place that works just fine thankyou. So while Apple may still be working on that video iPod and movie store - Microsoft is maybe one step ahead.
Posted by Matthew at 09:45 AM | Comments (1)
March 15, 2006
OSBC Europe taking shape
There is now a website for the European OSBC conference, scheduled to take place in June in London. While the site is still somewhat empty, there is a list of some of the confirmed speakers to date.
Interesting choice of domain names for a European conference though.
Posted by Matthew at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
The gloves are off
Amazon lands the first punch in the Internet storage space. As John Battelle notes, we're in for some interesting rounds.
Posted by Matthew at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2006
Football grudge match: Alfresco to take on Funambol
Matt raises the stakes for the Arsenal vs. Juventus match to take place April 5th. He's betting a free Alfresco subscription against Funambol's synchronization server that Arsenal will win. Fabrizio still has take up the bet.
Posted by Matthew at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)
The homework chat community
When my son Christopher comes home from school and before he starts work on his homework, he fires up his computer and the ICQ program to check who's "on". Even though he's speaking German, he refers to other people as being "on" - as opposed to "online" - which is the more usual expression (even in German). Second interesting tidbit: The program of choice is ICQ and they aren't using say AIM.
If any of his school-friends are "on" then they will quite often do their homework "together" i.e. they ask each other what the homework actually was (hmmm..) or test each other by asking questions via ICQ. In general they'll leave the chat programs running while they work in their respective homes (sounds familiar - right?).
Looking at what they are doing and I see this homework-social-network business model waiting to be discovered. The important difference being that this model obviously needs to be chat-centric as this currently forms the hub.
Posted by Matthew at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
XBox 360 update
I've not had much time to spend on my XBox 360 lately. However, yesterday I picked up a copy of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (or as it is most often called - GRAW). Very impressive. I think this is the first game that actually makes the XBox 360 shine when it comes to the graphic capabilities. I can't say much about the gameplay yet as I haven't got far yet. But me and "the boys" are going to be testing the XBox (and games) on a HD TV later today, so that should be fun.
On a side-note, my local store also had actual XBox 360 systems (not the core version) for sale. Only about 4 and I expect they've gone now - but still.
Posted by Matthew at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2006
Google gets it Write(ly)
The rumors have been confirmed. Google has snapped up Writely. Tick the box.
Posted by Matthew at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2006
GMail settings upsetting
I went to Munich on Monday (considering the snow, a story in itself). Anyway - while waiting in the airport I wanted to access my GMail emails via my HP 6515 (using POP over GPRS). Unfortunately I had forgotten to reset the POP settings so that the PDA would download say the last day or so. The "Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on" setting.
So, when my 6515 started to download about 350 messages I stopped the transfer and went to access the settings page via the mobile browser (pocket IE). I thought I could just reset the POP settings and then be set for the day at least.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be possible as GMail told me that accessing the settings page isn't possible via a mobile browser and that it would only work if I used a proper one. Even though the rest of the GMail interface rendered pretty well.
Duh. Anyone have a way around that for when the only way of access is a PDA?
Posted by Matthew at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
Play Pac-Man on your iPod
Ipodmame makes it all possible. Let me know when Scramble works!
Posted by Matthew at 06:10 PM | Comments (0)
Subscription based pricing edges in on iTunes store
Nicholas Carr has the details on how Apple may slowly be easing in subscription based pricing models. Soon to be applied to podcasts? My guess is that apart from the media companies looking to add this sort of model, so will the podcasters after seeing how others moved to Audible to cash in.
Posted by Matthew at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)
Google Calendar - CL2
Michael Arrington has posted screenshots from Google's calendar application - CL2 - over on TechCrunch. It looks to be tightly integrated with Gmail (no surprises there I guess), but I'm still wondering on how easy (or hard) it will be to get items from my work-calendar (Outlook) into CL2 and vice-versa.
Posted by Matthew at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)
Commercial Open Source - Beauty and the Beast
For me I think a turning-point in my "IT career" was really hearing Doc Searls talk about DIY-IT back in 2003 at OSCON. That was when I finally understood that this Open Source "thing" I had been involved in for the past 3 years was actually part of an IT revolution that was changing the world of enterprise IT I had known since 1985. Customers were, for the first time, supplying themselves from the growing marketplace of readily available software.
Open Source has become an important part of that marketplace and one that offers corporations far more advantages than they have known in the past (whereby the licensing aspect is becoming more and more irrelevant as an argument for Open Source). Corporations are looking to Open Source as a way of being faster and more flexible in their go-to-market strategies. They see Open Source as a way of freeing themselves up from the vendor-lock-in of proprietary software vendors. But corporate IT decision makers aren't stupid. They already realize that tying themselves in to a company that provides the whole support-line for an Open Source solution may not be the kind of reduced vendor-lock-in they're after.
Another way corporations look - very pragmatically - at Open Source, is as a way of forcing proprietary software vendors to reduce their licensing fees. In fact - as I was told just recently - it makes economical sense for large corporations to build an in-house Open Source alternative for the trash-can just as a way of forcing a commercial vendor to reduce their license charges.
Reflecting on what I've been hearing out of large German corporations recently and many of the remarks have been along the lines of needing "business Open Source" and by this they don't mean a commercial company that offers SLA type support for a product that they couldn't sell and that is now Open Source. No, these companies are worried by the fact that while there are plenty of really brilliant Open Source programmers out there, too few of those understand the business problems of a particular industry and/or customer.
To these companies, top programmers are a dime-a-dozen (increasingly so) and while they obviously need the odd "expert" or committer on an Open Source project, what they really need are companies and people who understand both sides - the business ("the Beast") and Open Source software (for many "the Beauty").
So really, they couldn't give a dime if you're a die-hard year-long Open Source guru or a "born-again" commercial vendor looking to ride the wave. If you don't understand the problems of the customer then you haven't got a chance - either way.
Posted by Matthew at 07:27 AM | Comments (1)
March 07, 2006
Is Open Source just a name now?
Gianugo launches into a rant about commercial Open Source companies and Matt Asay swings one back.
I'm tempted to take sides (difficult as I consider both guys my friends). I fully understand what both are saying and only a year or so ago I would have been fully on Gianugo's side. In fact I was very surprised (or rather - shocked) at what I saw at last year's OSBC when it came to the state of Open Source commercialism. The US was years ahead (if that's the right word) of how we saw "commercial" Open Source here in Europe back then. This year - the same picture - although now US Open Source companies are moving vertical. Hence companies like Pentaho or Splunk.
There is no doubt that Open Source is changing/has changed the software landscape over the past years and will continue to do so for years to come. However, just what that "Open Source" means is changing too.
A bit like quantum physics (if you'll pardon the glossing over) - the more people look at Open Source (with their varied backgrounds and goals), the more Open Source itself will change to become - well, who knows. Being successful in this marketplace will also mean being able to adapt quickly to the changes within Open Source and within the software business as a whole.
In the end, commercial Open Source is about selling to the customer. And it's the customer who will, in the end, define what commercial Open Source turns out to be.
On a side-note - this discussion would make for an interesting panel session or face-off podcast.
Posted by Matthew at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2006
HollandOpen - mark your calendars
My good friend Leon Gommans reminds me to tell you about the HollandOpen conference that is happening in Amsterdam from June 15th-17th. I was there last year and was really impressed with the conference. From the blurb:
The theme of this year's edition is "Open the Power House of networked Innovation - open source, open standards and open content". The aim of the Holland Open Software Conference is to present a broad variety of open initiatives and projects. We offer a platform were knowledge can be exchanged and were people meet in a professional and enthusiastic atmosphere.
Posted by Matthew at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2006
Tammy NYP - cool
Frank was first to see it and catch on!
Posted by Matthew at 04:27 PM | Comments (1)
March 02, 2006
Introducing: SourceCrossing
SourceCrossing is a new blog focussing on developments in the "commercial" Open Source space. From the blurb:
The last 12 months especially have seen a lot of growth in the commercial Open Source space - and now - at the beginning of 2006 the boom seems to have just started.
The SourceCrossing blog aims to track commercial Open Source developments as they happen.
Posted by Matthew at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)
Fowl play
I'm flying to Vienna in a couple of weeks, and my e-Ticket contains an interesting passage (noted under the "Dangerous goods in passenger baggage" section:
CLASSICAL FOWL PLAGUE (highly pathogenic form of AVIAN INFLUENZA, BIRD FLU) occurred in THIRD COUNTRIES in a widespread manner. Travellers are therefore prohibited from importing into the European Union (EU) poultry or other birds, poultry meat, eggs and other products derived from poultry as well as feathers or unprocessed game trophies from those third countries where avian influenza has occurred! No more than five (5) birds may be imported into the EU from all other third countries in tourist traffic. These animals must be accompanied by a veterinary certificate and a statement by the owner! Appropriate forms can be obtained, inter alia, from the German diplomatic representations abroad.
First, I find it interesting that they have limited the number of birds to five. Why? Also, now that avian flu has also broken out in Germany - does that mean I can't take my chicken sandwiches with me on my flight?
Posted by Matthew at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)