I’ve been thinking about Monday’s post on IBM’s “Open Collaboration Client Solution” and what it means to enterprise customers. And while I think it’s darn hard to figure out what IBM is actually offering from that release, it occurred to me that I may have been looking at the word “open” in the wrong way.

“Open,” to an enterprise customer, has more to do with interoperability between existing and anticipated applications than with open source specifically. This “light dawns over Marblehead” realization came from seeing a reference to the Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) customer forum results. This survey of CIOs and business execs from over 100 firms confirms that interoperability between open source applications and also between open source and proprietary solutions is an overriding concern for firms considering open source implementations. To quote from the OSA announcement:

“These findings represent a clear opportunity for the OSA to out-Microsoft
Microsoft by offering a fully interoperable suite of business tools,” said Dominic
Sartorio, OSA president. “If we can help our members’ solutions work well
together it makes it easier for our channel partners to sell open-source software
and it will translate into more revenue for vendors and even more options for
customers.”

Interoperability is a challenge among both large and small organizations. Key
issues with small organizations include single sign-on and authorization, data
integration and synchronization, UI and portal integration, and content
management integration. In addition to these, larger enterprises also raised
business process integration, production management, and legacy/proprietary
integration as key issues.

OSA executive director Dominic Sartorio, in an interview with IT Business Edge, described the IT customer’s concern with interoperability this way:

“It made the difference between them buying a solution or not. If you have to do a lot of interoperability work on your own or hire contractors to do it, that adds to the cost of ownership profile of the product. … So this is real. There’s a lot of unmet opportunity out there because we haven’t collectively done a good enough job. “

Sartorio also described how customers said “the bigger proprietary vendors like Microsoft or Oracle” were better able to handle the interoperability challenge, but at a higher cost, vendor lock-in and reduced innovation.

So maybe IBM - and other firms like Optaros– really do have an “open” opportunity here to straddle the gap between giant proprietary software companies and the much smaller open source application vendors. This helps explain Sun’s big bet with the MySQL acquisition and other recent deals. We’ll have to see just how open these big companies can be given their legacy of closed business practices and fierce competition from both sides of the issue.

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It’s what one might call a bit of headline serendipity. On the list of this week’s open source-related headlines, such as:

• Sun-MySQL Deal Validates Open Source Model (ChannelWeb)
• MySQL, JBoss, Zimbra…What is an open-source company worth? (Cnet)
• IBM edges closer to creating an open-source Jazz version (Computerworld)

We also got this item:

• How Do You Market Open-Source Applications That Are Free? (MarketingDaily)

Well, it would appear that Sun, Red Hat and IBM have figured that out, right? To be fair, the MD item is focused on marketing open source applications to consumers as part of a low-cost PC purchase — in other words, as an alternative to Windows. But I think it’s interesting to consider how enterprise open source solution vendors have dealt with this issue.

Clearly, the IBMs, Red Hats, Suns, Alfrescos, SugarCRMs, EnterpriseDBs and a great many more firms involved in open source have spent heavily to promote their offerings to a business audience. One part of their message — like that of open source for consumers — is that open source has a lower cost of ownership: not free, but less. But the other part of the enterprise vendor message is that open source works better and can meet customer needs faster and more completely. Getting that speed and customization requires that a customer spend something to achieve those results — just less than might be spent with a closed, proprietary solution.

It’s not easy to get consumers to adopt open source — just ask Linus Torvalds. Seems to me developers of consumer open source applications are not helping their users to spread the word. The marketing challenge for consumer open source is not putting “Linux vs. Windows” tent cards on shelves in Staples or Sears, but drawing attention to open source usage. Would it be too tacky to have an embedded “Emailed by open source Linux” in the footers of emails sent by the applications installed in all those Wal-Mart PCs?

What do you think? Is traditional marketing important to open source success? Can open source be marketed to consumers or only to business users? Post your comments below.

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More than one person has moaned aloud at the thought of having to review — or worse yet, update — a Microsoft Project file. Sure, there are online and downloadable Project file viewers, and plenty of competitors in the project management application space. But most of them cost money, have limited features or are otherwise wonky in some way.

Until now. Welcome Projity’s OpenProj 1.0, a full-featured cross-platform open source project management application that reads/writes MS-Project .mpp, Project 2003 .XML and Projity’s own .pod files. This is no trial version or crippleware, it’s the real thing, and it comes in Linux, Unix, Mac (PPC/X86) and, yes, Windows versions. As others point out, this could be a welcome addition to the OpenOffice suite of enterprise open source productivity applications.

I have just started tinkering with OpenProj — the 1.0 version launched recently — and so far, I’m impressed. According to the OpenProj site, so are the top guns at places like Sourceforge, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Sabayon Linux and Novell.

Right now it’s an EOS Directory candidate, but we’re looking to rate it and add it to the directory. If you’ve got comments about OpenProj, add them below. I’ll keep checking to see if SteveB from Redmond posts a thumbs-down comment. Then we’ll know for sure it’s the real thing!

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EOS Directory sponsor Optaros has launched a completely re-designed site with lots of Web 2.0 capabilities to showcase their Next Generation Internet (NGI) expertise.

Check out:

• Multimedia case studies with audio/video screencasts — make sure you’ve got your ears turned on.
• Assembly methodology — no, they’re NOT all the same.
• Open source policies and partnerships — thanks to a number of open source partners, the EOS Directory is open to help you locate the right enterprise open source solution.
• Expertise galore — check out the Optaros blogging team on topics like Social Networking Inside Out and an inside look of the new Optaros site.

Jeff Potts at ecmarchitect.com also has some comments about the new Optaros site. As always, special thanks to Optaros for their support of the EOS Directory.

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Talk about a provocative headline! But suddenly, recession talk is all the rage amid rising U.S. credit woes and sinking earnings in the financial sector - at least for now. And what about tech? Well, if IBM’s unexpectedly strong 24% increase in Q4 earnings is any indication, things may look especially good for open source.

ZDNet’s Open Sources blog asks if IBM’s results are due to open source?

“Should this count as an open source win, a validation of the open source concept?

I think it should. But there’s more to it than that.

IBM long-ago unified its product lines under Linux and open source. Through projects like Eclipse it has learned how to share basic costs and add value for its customers.

Sounds to me like IBM has learned to leverage both the developer and customer communities for the benefit of all — including Big Blue. It’s worth noting that IBM’s results have a sizable foreign currency component, which means non-US customers made a significant contribution to the bottom line.

On the other hand, ZDNet’s Hardware 2.0 blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes post — “Is open source recession-proof?” — offers a different take.

“Well, first off, I think that any business model that relies on volunteers could certainly see interest decline if times get tough. … The flip-side of this though is that being an active part of an open source project is a lot different to spending all day on YouTube or Flickr …”

One reader, Slashdot’s SatanicPuppy, responded this way:

“Far from being bad for OSS, recessions are GOOD for OSS. You lose your job, and freelance while looking for another one…What are you going to use? Companies have a need, and no budget to fill it with commercial software…What are they going to use? Sure, if you specialize in zillion dollar OSS deployments, you’ve got problems (problem #1: You’re mythical), but the true strength of OSS isn’t in giant deployments, but in filling in the gaps…When the gaps get bigger, there we are.”

Last week’s post on open source CEO forecasts for 2008 didn’t spend much time worrying about a recession. But what about you? How will an economic slowdown affect enterprise open source companies? Will they fare better, worse or the same as closed source firms? Post your comments below.

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The headline “Open Source Code Contains Security Holes” on an InformationWeek article has grabbed a lot of attention. Two more blog posts on the topic:

• Coverity project outing open source flaws (Zero Day Security)
• Yellow Journalism and Software Bugs (Open Source Security)

And today there’s a followup blog post by “Security Holes” author Charles Babcock and a response from Paul Beach, a developer and administrator for one of the open source projects mentioned in Babcock’s original article:

• Oops, Look At That Phoenix, Rising From The Ashes (IW Open Source Weblog)
• Open Source Code Contains Security Holes (Paul Beach’s Blog)

Still missing is an answer to the key question: do open source applications have more security flaws than closed source? The Department of Homeland Security, sponsor of the open source testing, states the estimated error rate at one security flaw for every 1000 lines of code among tested open source software. How does this compare to closed source? Coverity’s announcement makes no mention of closed source error rates.

Can someone cite some statistics showing a difference between the two types? Post your stats, sources and comments below.

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Everyone says you get more with open source. So here you go — ten CEOs of open source companies offering their views on the enterprise open source outlook for the New Year. Sponsored by the Open Solutions Alliance (OSA), the CEOs of member companies responded to four questions about open source issues for 2008. Some sample prognostications:

1. What will trigger increasing adoption of open source in the enterprise in 2008?

“There will be an increasing confluence between the open source and software as a service models. These are the two most powerful trends in software today, and while they’ve traditionally been seen as separate, parallel developments, they are rapidly combining to create the new business model for enterprise software. The combination is not just at the development level — BaaS companies adopting open source technologies to lower the cost of operations and R&D — but more importantly, on the distribution side.” — William A. Soward, CEO, Adaptive Planning

2. What is the biggest challenge for the open source software industry in 2008?

“More lawsuits will be brought against large corporations and technology companies in 2008 as open source advocates step up enforcement of the APL v2, v and other open source licenses.” — Doug Levin, CEO, Black Duck

“Figuring out business models that will produce viable, long term software companies rather than ‘flash in the pan’ ubiquity plays. Merely racing to see who can give the most away to a buyer who will take as much as the can get before paying money will not produce viable software companies.” — Javier Soltero, CEO, Hyperic

3. How big an effect will licensing have on open-source software in 2008?

“Open source licensing will continue to bother enterprise users but the dissemination of best implementation practices including license management will reduce this issue somewhat.” — Michael Grove, CEO, OpenIT Works

“We don’t see much impact here. Customers continue to get educated about the code they use and about open source licensing in general, so FUD will have less of a factor than in the past.” — Kim Polese, CEO, SpikeSource

4. What will be the biggest surprise in open source in 2008?

“During ‘08, the pressures CIOs will face to drive greater business innovation with a fixed (or low growth) IT budget will conspire to challenge every possible traditional software license. The 80% of the IT budget used to maintain existing or legacy systems must become more productive in order to satisfy the business goal of improved innovation.” — Brian Gentile, CEO, JasperSoft

“The biggest surprise in 2008 will be to see Open Source players register three-digit growth rates!” — Bertrand Diard, CEO, Talend

Get the complete list of questions and responses from the Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) site. (PDF)

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Congratulations to the Dojo Toolkit for releasing 1.0 this week.

As described in the SitePen Press Release:

Dojo provides easy-to-use, high-quality UI components and JavaScript infrastructure critical for building responsive web applications without the need for proprietary plugins or single-vendor solutions. Only 25K in size, the base of Dojo delivers key support for Ajax, progressive enhancement, animations, and opens the door to a wealth of high-quality widgets and extension modules. Dojo supports the Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera browsers.

Also shipping with Dojo core in 1.0 is the Dijit framework for widgets (including support for accessibility and internationalization of widgets, as well as programmatic widget creation), and the DojoX set of extensions (including CometD and Dojo Offline). Finally, the Dojo packaging system and D.O.H. unit testing harness demonstrate the maturity of the project from a development management / engineering perspective - it isn’t just about adding more features but making those features usable for development projects who adopt Dojo.

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They’re even talking about “participative communities” over in the .NET universe as the alt.net movement (insurgency?) gains momentum. Martin Fowler’s Bliki summarized the AltNetConf in Austin, TX a few weeks ago. He describes key participants as “a group of long-time users of Microsoft technologies who feel that their development philosophy has been getting out of sync with the perceived orthodoxy from Redmond.”

Highlighting their shared approach to software development methods (think agile), Fowler addresses a key topic — the relationship between software providers and software users:

“A participative community is different, they don’t just want the vendor to listen and provide suitable products - they want to participate in the development of new products. It’s just such a participative community that’s taken the initiative in the Java world. JUnit, IBatis, Spring, Hibernate et al didn’t come out of the vendors, but were developed by “customers”. One of the things about the nature of the software industry is that many customers are every bit as capable of producing vital products as vendor companies, especially when combined with the community and ethos of open source.

The great question ahead for Microsoft is how to engage with a participative and opinionated community like this. Treating such a group as an opponent will result in the loss of valuable products, and more importantly the capable people connected with them. Engaging with a community like this brings great opportunity. I would argue that the participative community around enterprise Java has saved the enterprise Java platform. A big challenge for Microsoft in all this is that this means finding a way to accommodate with open source development. …

One other issue in a community like this is that it’s a community that doesn’t equate criticism with animosity. Many vendors suffer from the belief that anyone who criticizes them is their enemy. In truth often your friends are at their most valuable when they are critical.”

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can be “open” enough to accommodate the alt.net movement. Given the caliber of the people involved, Microsoft’s loss would be open source’s gain.
 

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Just in time for Halloween, here’s a warning about scary enterprise apps and a reminder that it takes a community to build a decent solution.

Matt Asay’s Open Source blog on CNET highlighted a terrific post by Khoi Vinh, design director for NYTimes.com. Vinh’s Subtraction blog takes on the “freakish” design qualities of many enterprise applications.

“Enterprise software, it can hardly be debated, is pretty bad stuff. The high-dollar applications that businesses use to run their internal operations … are some of the least friendly, most difficult systems ever committed to code.

This is partly because enterprise software rarely gets critiqued the way even a US$30 piece of shareware will. It doesn’t benefit from the rigor of a wide and varied base of users, many of whom will freely offer merciless feedback, goading and demanding it to be better with each new release. Shielded away from the bright scrutiny of the consumer marketplace and beholden only to a relatively small coterie of information technology managers who are concerned primarily with stability, security and the continual justification of their jobs and staffs, enterprise software answers to few actual users.”

Vinh goes on to savage the latest Lotus Notes 8 ad campaign — “freakish” is too mild a term for it. Read the whole “If It Looks Like a Cow, Swims Like a Dolphin and Quacks Like a Duck, It Must Be Enterprise Software” post for more. Matt Asay’s point is simple — open source enterprise applications have at least a chance of being better thanks to the community processes underlying open source development. And if IT departments began using their own community of users to shape development … who knows what might happen?

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