Re: CMU faculty/COSI: Adopting and Using Open S ource Software

We use a lot of opensource where I work. We don't just use it, we also
contribute. Visit www.openadaptor.org and you will see a bit of what we do.

And we're a bank, about as regulated as you get. If you want someone from
DrKW to provide input to this then please let me know.

JP Rangaswami
Global CIO
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
--------------------------
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-----Original Message-----
From: community-admin-yzvPICuk2ADJNcJ45EAw5ze48wsgrGvP@public.gmane.org
To: [email protected]; 'Arnulf Christl'
CC: [email protected]
Sent: Mon Jul 25 16:40:15 2005
Subject: RE: [F/OSS-Community] CMU faculty/COSI: Adopting and Using Open
Source Software

People:

Thanks for your comments about the COSI Conference.
You are correct in observing that most of the conference
speakers have corporate affiliations.  That is because
I have a specific goal in mind.  Let me explain....

There are lots of conferences where the true believers
meet to discuss open source.  Personally, I go back to
the development of Berkeley Unix, and distributed my
own research team's User Software Engineering distribution
as open source (BSD license) in 1981.

Among my goals for this conference is to address the
IT directors, the ones who are spending billions of dollars
on proprietary software.  They don't understand the open
source movement and don't want to have open source
in their shops.  Of course, they already have some, but
they probably don't know it.  I have talked to some of
the largest companies in Silicon Valley, and they actually
have policies that forbid the use of open source completely.

If you want to get a message to them that open source
is safe to use and that it is a good business decision,
I think that the best way to do that is to have that message
presented by people from companies who have had
significant success with open source.  The focus of the
speakers is not to sell anything, but rather to talk about
how they evaluate, adopt, use, and support open source.

Without going through the credentials of each speaker,
I would point out that the whole conference is aimed at
showing attendees how they can successfully bring
open source products into their companies.  Since you
mentioned Oracle specifically, I can tell you that my
reason for inviting Wim Coekaerts includes his own
significant contributions in the Linux community
(Google him) and his knowledge of how Oracle runs
a very substantial portion of their own business on Linux.
It's true that Oracle also makes money from selling
its DBMS and its applications on Linux, but that is
not the point of his talk.  Stormy Peters, from HP, led
the team that put together the policies that HP uses
to bring open source into the company and to include
it in its products.   Many companies are worried that
their own proprietary software will be compromised if
they allow open source into their shops; she can tell
them that they can do it safely.  And so on.

I am involved in other projects that are intended to help
businesses feel more secure in their use of open source
software and to be able to assess which open source
products are mature enough to be used in their businesses.

If we all want open source to be successful in the broadest
sense of that word, then we have to go beyond the existing
open source communities, universities, and research labs.
That's what I am trying to do here.  I hope that you will
take another look at the people and the topics being
discussed.   As Roger Essoh noted, we have to convince
businesses that the TCO with open source products is
lower than that of proprietary products.  I think that the
program I have assembled is aimed directly at that issue.

Thanks for reading.

Tony Wasserman
Professor of Software Engineering Practice
Carnegie Mellon West

_____________________________________________________-

At 07:26 AM 7/25/2005, Essoh Roger wrote:
>Arnulf,
>
>I agree with your comment...
>
>The best way according to me, should be the creation of a network of OSS
>evangelists.
>Profile, people working in/with Corporations and open source specialist.
>
>I can understand Oracle strategy.
>Use Linux is an easy way to show open source flag into a commercial model.
>
>The real challenge for open source "fans" and "not fans" is in your last
>sentence.
>In fact the war "if I can say that) is away, the war is not based on the
>technology but on the way to show why OSS TCO is better then the others.
>
>Finally, according to me, Open Source is a strategy the CIO can deploy or
no
>into the Information System.
>
>Best,
>Roger Essoh
>
>
>-----Message d'origine-----
>De : community-admin-yzvPICuk2ADJNcJ45EAw5ze48wsgrGvP@public.gmane.org
>[mailto:community-admin-yzvPICuk2ADJNcJ45EAw5ze48wsgrGvP@public.gmane.org]De la part de Arnulf Christl
>Envoyé : lundi 25 juillet 2005 15:55
>À : cosi-FRbg9EKgv2H2fBVCVOL8/[email protected]
>Cc : [email protected]
>Objet : [F/OSS-Community] CMU faculty/COSI: Adopting and Using Open
>Source Software
>
>
>Hello,
>referring to the program of "Adopting and Using Open Source Software":
>  > http://cosi.west.cmu.edu/conference05
>
>It is disappointing to have a list of the who-is-who large corporations
>that do not further the empowering effect of FLOSS but rather tend to
>cannibalize Free Software (even if the *people* involved try not to).
>
>In our eyes "Adopting and Using Open Source Software" should at least
>shed some light on community effects, power of disruptive technology and
>inherent potential for minorities (financial and other).
>
>It is a long standing joke that Oracle is Open Source because it runs on
>Linux. What has to be done is enlighten people about what this strange
>thing Free Software is all about. Don't let commercial interests
>obfuscate the idea before it has been thoroughly understood. If your
>interest is to attract commercial players then show them how they can
>fit into the system without trampling all over it.
>
>Best,
>_______________________________________________
>Community mailing list
>[email protected]
>http://opensource.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/community


_______________________________________________
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