Tina Gasparson has published a great piece titled Why Open Standards Matter over on NewsForge. She’d been to Government Day at Linuxworld Boston, and heard some compelling speakers argue for open source, and also for free software. Tina’s point of view is that open standards are the biggest requirements. The argument essentially boils down to customer choice.
Open sourcing is a complex issue, which many companies confront. Why, how open, what license, and whether to use open source in their own projects are just some of the issues. Many have the mistaken idea that it’s a simple as setting your code free, and millions of developers all over the world will do the rest of the work for you. Unh unh… Several years ago I wrote a primer on Open Source as a strategy, which, although the references are dated, is still applicable. You can find it here: To Open Source or Not
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
