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Open Source is not about freedom, nor is it about licenses. It’s about community. Of course everyone knows about Richard Stallman’s concern about having the freedom to modify all software on his machine. Tim O’Reilly has had a concern for many years that Open Source licenses do not keep software Open Source when it is…

Michael DeHaan has an excellent post entitled “How Open Source Is Your Open Source?”. I dare say it is his best post despite getting in a few (Linux) distro biased comments. He proposes a set of community standards that determine the real health and openness of Open Source. In my opinion, a major problem with…

The Open Source Convention of 2008 has closed its doors. It might not have been right to count our gains and losses during the conference, but it is time and timely, to do so. The first of all lessons was the increasing number of attendance from Africa. The word increasing may look absurd, because it…

Is Microsoft a tiger or a rogue elephant? A tiger has its own agenda, and cannot be diverted from its mission:to kill and eat. An rogue elephant is powerful and intelligent, but they can also be trained. We in the opensource community are not sure of the answer to this question. If Microsoft is a…

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…