Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
OSBC Attendees Bullish on Open Source
3/31/2008
Survey results conducted at the Infoworld Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), held last week in San Francisco, indicated a positive outlook for open source software.
The OSBC event brought together representatives from several companies involved in open source software, including Canonical/Ubuntu, Acquia, Sugar CRM and Sun Microsystems. They met to discuss the future of open source software. Topics discussed included the economic downturn and its relation to open source implementation, market drivers for open source and how some companies are spearheading the future success of open source.
OSBC attendees were polled by venture capital company North Bridge Venture Partners about the path to open source at the meeting. The majority (approximately 81 percent) of respondents felt that current economic conditions are beneficial to open source. They also indicated the three factors that they viewed as making open source attractive:
- Lower acquisition and maintenance costs;
- Source code access and the flexibility that comes with it; and
- Freedom from vendor lock in.
About 55 percent of the delegates polled believed that in five years, 25 percent to 50 percent of software will be open source versus the predominant use of proprietary software today.
Open source software will have its greatest effect in the Web publishing and content management system (CMS) markets in the next five years, respondents indicated. The least effect will be seen for the use of open source in security tools, they added.
"The highly visible commercial success of open source has helped firmly place it on the map as one of the most influential market segments within the software industry," said Michael Skok, General Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners, in a publicly released statement.
A presentation that summarizes the survey's results is available here.
Will Kraft is a Web designer, technical consultant, and freelance writer. His website is Pagewizard Web Design. You can contact Will at will@pagewizardwebdesign.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- RIAA Outsources Fingering of Students Who Share Music Illegally
The RIAA is outsourcing the hunt for music thieves. Its largest target currently is those who operate from within colleges and universities, a move that has piqued the attention of Educause.
- Microsoft Expands Education Footprint in Asia Pacific Region
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced new partnerships to extend accessibility and computer literacy in the Asia Pacific region during a speech in Jakarta at a government leader gathering earlier this week.
- IT Struggling Over Security, Compliance
IT pros are having a hard time balancing security, software patch management and IT auditing with a host of other duties, according to a survey released Monday by Shavlik Technologies.
- Toronto College Upgrades Network with Gigabit Ethernet Wireless Links
Toronto-based George Brown College has gone public about its deployment of six BridgeWave GE60 wireless links to upgrade its campus-wide network.
- Gates Highlights R&D at CES08, Unveils Microsoft Touch Wall
Microsoft's Chairman Bill Gates spent a lot of time Wednesday talking about "empowering the workers" at the Microsoft's 12th annual CEO Summit 2008 in Redmond, WA, where he gave a keynote speech. However, Gates wasn't talking about political revolutions or even pay raises for office workers before the CEO crowd. Instead, he was referring to new software technologies that can better enable collaboration, social networking and decision-making on the job.
- Vista Vulnerability Study Puts Microsoft on Defensive
Microsoft and some independent security researchers had the blogosphere buzzing Wednesday over a series of denunciations after one company claimed that the Vista operating system was more vulnerable to malware and other exploits than previous operating systems.
