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This morning Sam Ramji gave one of the closing keynote presentations at OSCON 2008. He talked about writing a new chapter in Microsoft’s history with the open source community, and he promised to talk openly and honestly with us. It is a promise that he made to me personally when I met him between sessions…

I have been working with Sam Ramji and Robert Duffner from Microsoft, and I have been very pleased to resolve the issues that I had with the work they are funding for the Apache POI project. Not only has Microsoft addressed the concerns that I had with regards to patents and OOXML, but they have…

This week I’m attending OSCON 2008, where the OSI is celebrating its 10th anniversary as an organization, but that’s only one reason I’m here. Another reason I’m here is because I like to read, share, and make connections well outside the expected circle. When I attended OSCON in 1999 (Monterey), I explained how Jared Diamond’s…

In one week the open source community will meet at OSCON. I’ll be part of a panel – Open Source, Open World – that will discuss the success and challenges for open source worldwide. Danese Cooper, that is hosting the panel, asked the participants to list a few questions that we should discuss on the…

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. And it will be participating at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland this July 23-25, 2008. Meet OSI’s team and listen to what OSI speakers have to say at the following OSCON sessions. See you there! SESSIONS ON WEDNESDAY JULY 23,…

In a free market, over time, competition in the production of a commodity product will eliminate all profits. Bread-makers can sell their bread for enough money to cover the cost of the capital invested in the bakery, the cost of the flour, yeast, sugar, and water, the fuel needed for firing, and the salary of…

Open Source in Africa is taking a different turn. It is going policy. We have done the “raising dust” or advocay part. We have also done the debate part of it. The time for constructive and sustainable action is here. The Free Software and Open Source Foundation is now engaging with Regional blocks to entrench…

When Starbucks grew from regional powerhouse to cultural phenomenon, there was one small problem: the coffee they sold did not jive with their brand. So much so that in 2000 they printed millions of pamplets in the US explaining why it was that even though they really, really wanted to sell organic, shade-grown, fairly traded…

Last week I read the book small is possible. It’s a great read, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoyed books like The Tipping Point, The Wisdom of Crowds, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and other books that powerfully explain the world from a new perspective. From the back cover of the book: Forget homeland…

I was happy to learn on Monday that the Petaflop barrier has been broken. IBM’s Roadrunner supercomputer achieved this feat with commodity hardware and open source software (including Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux). Achieving this level of performance is something that many in the research community have dreamed of for a long time. When it was…