THE BOSS IS BACK

Open Source Weekend planned by the Ottawa Canada LUG reflects Business of Open Source Software in riper mode: Freely available software no longer boggles commercial minds.

    
  by Nancy Cohen
     
  Last year, the Linux Users Group in Ottawa (OCLUG) decided to organize a symposium under the theme “The Business of Open Source Software (BOSS). Dave Edwards—writer, organizer, and cheerleader for Open Source software in business and government—was the team’s main ringleader. The November event, which featured keynote speakers and panel discussions, looked at the “rapidly emerging role of Open Source software in the world of business.”

Apart from exploring Open Source models that can work, BOSS organizers last November also set their sights for creating a venue for plenty of card-swapping and hand-shaking. The idea was to link business users to Open Source developer-entrepreneurs.

“We are still at the stage,” Edwards told Open last year, “where software made freely available just boggles business users’ minds.” This year, there are less minds being boggled and more signs of Open Source recognition, as the second BOSS parley gets under way.

On January 25 and 26, a coalition of professionals, students and volunteers will be welcoming guests to an Open Source Weekend. The first day’s events are at two campuses, the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. The second day’s events are all BOSS—or, in this its second year, BOSS2. The weekend’s agenda items for this year’s event reflect riper signs of the times. The event plans to offer tutorials, vendor displays, and a working demonstration of an office environment based on Open Source software and Linux, along with keynotes and panel discussions.

 
         
 

If last year’s BOSS event was one of soul-searching and introductions, the OCLUG site announces that “This year, we will be examining the practical employment of Open Source software in business environments.” But will it be a weekend to remember? To better explain what’s ahead, Open revisits Edwards.

What’s special about this year’s OSW and BOSS?

Edwards: We’re expanding discussions into the practical. We are going to have a working demo of an office environment based on Open Source software and Linux. There will also be groups from the computer science streams at two of Ottawa's universities plus some members of the local Unix users group.

 
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We’ve witnessed a number of Open Source businesses falling off the planet or moving into proprietary models. Why can’t we just conclude that most Open Source business attempts are failures?

Edwards: That’s unfair, inasmuch as most businesses of any sort are struggling, particularly young businesses. Businesses whose main stock-in-trade is Open Source software may have an additional battle of finding a well-fitting business model for themselves, and then getting that across to their customers. "New" may equal "scary" to some business people, but the battle seems to be getting easier.

How do you assess this past year for Open Source software?

Edwards: It's been a really outstanding year for adoption of Open Source Software both in the “enterprise" and in government. As this continues and normalizes, it will be interesting to see how these entities using Open Source will take advantage of its qualities. For example, where support is concerned, will they disproportionately favor the larger, better-known brands for their familiarity, or will they really exploit the whole market of choices afforded by Open Source? It's still “early days” for a lot of Open Source-based businesses. We should also remember to look at companies that extract "use-value" from Open Source software, and how that impacts their survival.

 
BOSS2 SNAPSHOT
Event:
The Business of Open Source Software2 (BOSS2), a symposium on Open Source/Free Software in business

Event movers:
Ottawa Canada Linux Users Group (OCLUG)

Special Guests:
Martin Fink (The Business of Economics of Linux and Open Source)
Jim Elliot (Linux and Open Source: Changing the Game)

Panelists:
Eid Eid, President and CEO of OEone
Joseph Potvin, Public Works and Government Services, Canada

Where:
University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Date:
Saturday and Sunday, January 25th and 26th, 2003.

Corporate Sponsors:
IBM Canada
Roaring Penguin
OEone

     
 

Your January 26 BOSS agenda lists your special guests as Marten Fink of HP and Jim Elliot from IBM Canada. They’re to talk about today’s economics and business marketplace of Open Source. Had you invited others as special guests?

Edwards: Yes, a couple of people who were also invited declined our invitation. A lot of people in the Open Source world are really busy these days. That's a good sign, so I didn't mind being turned down.

Among your panelists is Eid Eid, CEO of OEone. Any lessons to be learned from OEone, for those seeking assurances that Open Source businesses can survive?

Edwards: OEone is a good example to show people because, with their products, they have run so far with Open Source software, especially the Mozilla framework. They show that businesses can leverage this software to build something original, unique, and even snazzy. Their success also shows that Open Source software can be used to build a business provided you have the same ingredients essential to any business: ingenuity, talent, planning.

Isn’t OSW essentially a Canada-centric event, with Canada-centric issues?

Edwards: No. The material we're presenting has universal applications. The emergence of Open Source software into the mainstream of business and government is happening all over the world. Whether you're in Ottawa or Lima, or New Delhi, the experiences and issues will be much the same.

What's good about having Joseph Potvin leading a BOSS session? We see that he is credited as the architect of the first GNU-GPL software release from the Canadian government. 

Edwards: Joseph is perhaps better qualified than anyone to speak about Open Source software in the Canadian government. He organized a symposium on that subject in May,  and he has been working hard to open minds within the Canadian civil service. As a founder of GOSLING (Getting Open Source Logic Into Government) and GOOSE (Government Official Open Source Engagement), Joseph continues to make this happen.

Where is the funding for OSW coming from?

Edwards: In terms of volunteer energy, which may not be measurable but is still the principal resource for an event like ours, the largest part of “funding” comes in the form of volunteers donating their time and energy. In terms of dollars, OSW's sponsors are thus far IBM Canada, Roaring Penguin, and OEone. Roaring Penguin is a small Ottawa company that produces widely used software. It's the second consecutive year that Roaring Penguin has sponsored our events.

Dave Edwards is a writer and organizer living in Ottawa, Canada. His involvement with Open Source software began several years ago and includes work with the Ottawa Canada Linux Users Group, Ottawa Python Authors Group, and collaborating on the "Free Software Leaders Stand Together" open letter.