We use open source tools. A small staff works with a large group of writers who are paid based on performance. The key is to monetize pages enough so income equals outgo with a bit left over.
The New York Times reports that something along these lines is starting to happen in local journalism. The story focuses on the editorial effort, young reporters in an office talking on telephones.
This is a bit like analyzing a bull from the rear end. It’s the wrong way to go about it. The right way to evaluate an open source enterprise is through the business model. The output is a byproduct.
In the case of local journalism the job is to organize and advocate the market. Just as ZDNet organizes and advocates tech for you, a local newspaper should do the same for its community.
In business this is done through a directory. Each business you mention is a push pin on a Google map, linked to the story, and linked to its Web site. They don’t have a Web site? Sell them one.
By building an organized Web presence for businesses large and small, you build the continuing revenues any editorial effort rides on.
The key metrics are links and traffic. Keep building the former, monetize the latter, and you can build a business online. Even if you’re doing local news.
The data also shows the remaining 15% intend to adopt open source programs within the coming year.
But only 31% of companies surveyed have formal policies for investigating the use of open source software (OSS). Several companies say cost is the motivating factor for switching to open source, along with avoiding vendor lock-in.
But Gartner research director Laurie Wuster told ZDnet companies need to think about more than getting a cheap deal.
"Just because something is free doesn't mean that it has no cost. Companies must have a policy for procuring OSS, deciding which applications will be supported by OSS, and identifying the intellectual property risk or supportability risk associated with using OSS. Once a policy is in place, then there must be a governance process to enforce it."
Find out how to improve your business with open source software on SmartCompany.
Building on the company's ongoing worldwide success and expansion, OK Labs is showing its commitment to the European market by providing local sales, services and support.
As part of its enhanced local presence, OK Labs has promoted engineering director Abi Nourai to Technical Director, Europe. Nourai will be in charge of European operations, bringing extensive embedded engineering and engineering management expertise to his new role -- to provide a vital base for delivering commercial and technical resources to European customers. The addition of European staff also lets the company provide customers direct and instant access to a worldwide engineering and support team.
"European OEMs and operators lead in advancing wireless technologies, fostering development and rapid adoption of new mobile devices and consumer services," said Nourai. "European mobile industry players will benefit from OK Labs secure embedded hypervisor software architecture and the local presence we provide."
This location, the fifth for OK Labs, extends market presence in Europe, enabling greater global market reach. "Establishing a European Headquarters marks an important milestone for OK Labs -- today the company can offer a local presence in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific," said Steve Subar, co-founder and CEO of OK Labs. "The choice of location and of Abi Nourai to run operations there represents the extent of our commitment to serving the global wireless industry."
Award-winning OKL4 Software Technology
OK Labs continues to evolve its award-winning OKL4 software technology, having recently released the latest version of its embedded hypervisor, OKL4 3.0 and OKL4 Nano. OKL4 enables the design of more secure and reliable Smartphones while reducing bill of materials, accelerating time-to-market and decreasing the impact of growing software complexity. Additionally, OKL4 is available under an open source license and is supported by an active developer community.
Open Kernel Labs
Open Kernel Labs is the leading supplier of open source embedded hypervisor and virtualization technology to developers of embedded designs for mobile handsets and other consumer electronics applications. Backed by the largest, independent team of microkernel developers, OK Labs delivers OKL4, an embedded hypervisor, which offers the highest performance combined with strong protection and security features. OKL4 provides developers with a robust, open source platform for building secure, differentiated embedded applications. For more information about OK Labs and its products, visit www.ok-labs.com. OK Labs is a spin-out from NICTA, Australia's preeminent Center of Excellence for information and communications technology, http://nicta.com.au/.
For information on the OK Community, please visit the Community Portal at www.ok-labs.com/community/community-portal. Participants can join the Developer's Mailing List at http://www.ok-labs.com/community/mailing-list-signup.
Open Kernel Labs, OK Labs and Secure HyperCell are trademarks or registered trademarks of Open Kernel Labs or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Open Kernel Labs, OK Labs and Secure HyperCell are trademarks or registered trademarks of Open Kernel Labs or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Bijan Sabet from Spark and Fred Wilson from Union Square will join the Boxee board.
Boxee, which is still in private beta testing, is a media center solution that allows you to play back content from third-party providers like Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, or Last.fm through a very slick interface.
Of course, Boxee will also play back any videos, photos, or music files you have on your own computer or local network. Besides playing back media, Boxee also aggregates reviews from third-party websites and allows you to share your activity with your friends.
Most of the hype around Boxee right now is due to the fact that it can be installed on an Apple TV, which greatly extends the functionality of these devices.
As Boxee is an open-source program, developers can easily extend the functionality of the application and develop plugins for it. Boxee's back-end is based on the open-source xbmc media center project.
Fred Wilson calls Boxee the "Firefox of the media center software sector," and judging from what we have seen of it so far, we would have to agree.
According to Boxee's announcement, the company will use the additional funding to extend its user base and to extend the feature set of the software. Hopefully, this additional funding will also mean that we can soon see hardware with pre-installed versions of Boxee.
Web CMS provider eZ Systems plans to team up with software solutions company Mamut ASA to offer a hosted version of its open source CMS.
Mamut ASA is a Norwegian provider of integrated software solutions and internet services for SMEs with more than 335,000 customers.
eZ Systems and Mamut ASA will launch SaaS eZ Publish to give businesses even more flexibility and choice. Users will be able to get eZ as a service with a predictable cost plan, or convert existing eZ Publish installation to the SaaS model.
As eZ notes, lately, the software industry has made significant strides in the way customers purchase and use software. Open source makes the software available to anyone interested in using it; thus, encouraging innovation and fostering quicker development. The Software-as-a-Service model enables organizations to save money on hardware, configuration efforts and avoid the hosting and maintenance hassles.
Infrastructure and up-front license costs are, probably, two of the most compelling reasons to go SaaS. Many organizations embrace open source technology. But, in addition to that, some organizations are searching for a Web application that is not only supported, reliable and robust, but that is also fully hosted and managed. This is where eZ comes in.
The combination of Open Source CMS and hosted CMS is a unique proposition in the content management market. eZ thinks it will also be very competitive, since there are no license costs as part of the price. This will enable small- and medium-sized businesses to use eZ Publish at an affordable cost.
While research firms are talking about how hot SaaS is and trend it as the next even hotter thing for 2009, eZ Systems is combining the complimenting forces of open source and SaaS to a convenient way to develop and manage a Web site.
Full details about the eZ Publish SaaS offering from eZ Systems and Mamut ASA are coming soon, as the launch is being finalized. We plan on talking to eZ in more detail about this partnership and will keep you posted.
The report added that most of the remaining entities are also planning to start using open source applications in the coming months.
The surprising part of the research was that just around 31 percent of companies had policies for evaluating and procuring open-source software.
This research was conducted on 274 end-user organizations across the Asia/Pacific, Europe, and North America market earlier this year.
Gartner research director Laurie Wurster stated: “Just because something is free doesn’t mean that it has no cost. Companies must have a policy for procuring OSS, deciding which applications will be supported by OSS, and identifying the intellectual property risk or supportability risk associated with using OSS. Once a policy is in place, then there must be a governance process to enforce it.”
The software, called the Problem Reporting Analysis and Corrective Action (PRACA) system, was created by the Human-Computer Interaction Group at NASA's Ames Research Center, and is designed to give a wide cross-section of people in the Space Shuttle ecosystem access to a single database package for tracking problems with the Shuttle and its associated infrastructure.
According to Alonso Vera, the lead of the Ames Human-Computer Interaction Group, the single, universally accessible PRACA package is replacing a set of more than 40 different database systems that had been used over the past 30 years by the many different parts of that Shuttle ecosystem.
And, like a related database system known as Items for Investigation (IFI) that is used for tracking International Space Station issues, the new PRACA was written using open source Bugzilla tools that will save NASA considerable amounts of time and money.
Vera would not say exactly how much the new systems cost to build, but he said they were an order of magnitude cheaper than what was being used before, closer to US$100,000 than the US$1 million it would have cost in the past.
More to the point, Vera explained, by using open source Bugzilla tools, technicians will be able to make changes to either PRACA or IFI more or less on the fly, rather than having to submit any proposed changes to the publishers of proprietary software, steps that often took weeks to achieve.
The PRACA system is used, Vera said, to help anyone trying to diagnose problems with the Shuttle find reports of similar issues from the past to see how they were resolved. The IFI system, by contrast, is used by those involved with the Space Station to report new problems for later analysis.
Already, the new PRACA systems are being used in NASA's Constellation program, which will replace the Space Shuttle after 2010. But Friday's launch will be the first live test of the system, given that Constellation has yet to go into space. However, since it is only a test, the existing PRACA system will also be used.
Similarly, the Space Station program has now phased out its older IFI system and turned on the new version.
Vera said that the Space Shuttle program has yet to commit fully to the new PRACA system, though the Space Station program will do a full switchover in March 2009.
However, only 31 percent of companies surveyed by the analyst house had formal policies for evaluating and procuring open-source software (OSS). Gartner conducted its survey of 274 end-user organisations across the Asia/Pacific, Europe and North American markets in May and June, and announced the results on Monday.
Respondents to the survey consistently pointed to cost as a prime motivator for their adoption of open source, with some also suggesting OSS provided some protection against single-vendor lock-in. Other reasons for adoption included fast time to market and the avoidance of complex procurement rules and procedures, Gartner said.
However, according to Gartner, a lack of formal policies could open companies up to intellectual-property violations. The analyst house's survey put governance issues at the top of the list for barriers to OSS adoption.
"Just because something is free doesn't mean that it has no cost," said Gartner research director Laurie Wurster in a statement. "Companies must have a policy for procuring OSS, deciding which applications will be supported by OSS, and identifying the intellectual property risk or supportability risk associated with using OSS. Once a policy is in place, then there must be a governance process to enforce it."
Wurster added that the variety of licence types and forms for open-source software could make understating when and where OSS might fit in a "frustrating process".
"As time goes by, many of these concerns will be addressed, but this continues to be a slow process," Wurster said. "Increases in OSS popularity and in the rate of OSS adoption will drive the required changes."
In terms of the business processes for which open-source software is being used, customer service headed Gartner's list, although enterprise integration, finance and administration and business analytics also showed strongly.
With the continued success of its partnership with the Mozilla Foundation, Toronto’s Seneca College could be the school of choice for budding open source developers and a strong model for other tech programs around the country to follow.
Over the past couple years, the Mozilla partnership has given Seneca students the ability to work on key aspects of the Firefox Web Browser as well as other Mozilla-led initiatives such as Thunderbird, Songbird and Bugzilla. The program allows students to beef up their resumes and has even landed a few graduates continued employment with Mozilla.
The partnership kicked off in 2007, after Mozilla issued a US$50,000 grant to the school used to develop several open source and Mozilla-focused courses. The open source project donated another $100,000 earlier this year to support the on-going collaboration between Mozilla and Seneca’s Centre for Development of Open Technology (CDOT).
David Humphrey, a professor at Seneca’s school of computer studies who runs open source development courses for the college, said that the Mozilla partnership now expands to four different courses, all of which put students inside the Mozilla community and working with talented open source developers.
“We have two courses on our bachelor program and two in our diploma program,” he said. “We spend the first course taking the students into the Mozilla project and teaching them how to collaborate with people around the world on code. We also get them all paired up with mentors within Mozilla.”
Students can work on anything from bug fixes to completely integrating new features or tools into the Mozilla project, Humphrey added.
In the second course, the student developers are able to take their code one step further and continue to refine it. “We’ve found that having that second course really allows the work to matter,” Humphrey said. “Having a full eight months to really get immersed in this stuff and follow through on the project means the different between a toy project and something that can actually be shipped.”
One of the school’s most significant contributions to Mozilla’s Firefox project was developed last year by a recent Seneca computer studies graduate Andrew Smith. He helped implement support for a new image format, the Animated PNG (APNG), which overcomes the technical limitations of animated GIFs.
The company has also announced a number of new appointments, including that of former Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Newcomb to its board of advisors.
Flat World co-founder Jeff Shelstad said that given the current economic climate, he was “pleased” to complete the new financing deal. A larger round of investment is expected to be completed within the next six months.
Under the Flat World model, the company will publish open source textbooks that students can download for free; it hopes to make its money by selling various options to the online text, ranging from print-on-demand print versions to audio downloads. No advertising is accepted. The texts, which are written by authors signed by Flat World, can be customized by instructors.
Flat World began beta testing its four titles this fall with over 600 students at 20 colleges. It has set the commercial launch for January.
In addition to naming Newcomb as an advisor, Flat World has added to its sales and marketing team, appointing three former print salespeople to new spots. Sharon Koch, formerly director of marketing for a division of Prentice-Hall/Pearson Education, has been named marketing director; Brett Sullivan, a senior account manager with McGraw-Hill, has been named director of eastern region sales; and Jennifer Welchans, formerly with West Publishing and Prentice-Hall, has been named director of inside sales.
The open source applications include El Dorado, Substruct, Tracks, and Beast. An introductory video that demonstrates the auto-install feature is available at http://www.mor.ph/library_videos.
"Morph AppSpace extends its capability by empowering companies to quickly run and utilize applications and accelerate their innovation," said Winston Damarillo, chairman and CEO of Morph Labs. "We are making these open source applications available on demand on Morph AppSpace so that companies can focus on their core businesses and provide efficiencies and economies in managing their hardware and software."
Teams of all sizes, as well as individuals, can now experience the convenience of one click installation, enabling them to effectively collaborate without any hardware or software to download, install or maintain.
The bundled applications are available for £16.99 including VAT (to cover costs of testing and distribution), and appear to be Windows only (though it's difficult to root out system requirements). The included software is designed to help those with a number of different needs, including dyslexia, visual impairments, and some physical disabilities.
The disk, called AccessAT, has been tested in a number of settings (home, work, and educational institutions). Some of the included open source tools are the NVDA screen reader and the Virtual Magnifying Glass.
High contrast displays have always been useful, but there are many other tools that make detailed, specific computing tasks easier for those with disabilities. Accessibility tools (frequently abbreviated as a11y) are one of the most attractive aspects of open source software. Many of these tools are cross-platform (such as the Virtual Magnifying Glass) and the number of alternatives for particular systems (such as the NVDA screen reader in Windows, and Orca for Linux) are growing.
Free as in cost is always appealing, but the free as in speech aspect makes these tools more useful, very quickly. Text to speech and transcription programs, for instance, can only benefit from developers adding accurate localization -- and pronounciation -- support.
Many students would benefit from such a site; it would be like a
combination of YouTube and Wikipedia. These are two of the most visited
web sites and with the technology they offer, we would be able to
update information and access information we need anytime. Given the
freedom of the Wikipedia style site, we could look up information for
our own interests or for school and if we know someone more about the
topic that isn’t there, we could simply add to the site. Not only will
text be included on the article topics, but videos as well. This could
greatly help students and other professionals looking for detailed
information.
Wikipedia is a site that offers great encyclopedic information that
can be updated by anyone. YouTube offers free videos online, but is
less educational. If a web site were to be built with the combination
of the two, the opportunities would be endless. For instance, medical
students would be able to look up information for their projects and
post videos of their experiments. The same goes for other students and
anyone else who wants in on the information gathering.
Likely after this “WikiTube or LibraryHub” is created, it would
wipe out other encyclopedia sites. But to help ensure the accuracy of
the web site, editors and fact checkers will be needed to correct the
information. This will make a more reliable source than Wikipedia.
Sometimes text or videos alone isn’t enough to explain a specific
topic. With the use of both, we can better understand a subject. You
could contribute to the web site by uploading your latest theories on a
topic and your video to back it up. This would be a venue for all to
share their minds with one another.
An open source library hub, such as this could benefit many types
of people. Professionals and students would be able to add their videos
to an existing subject to help prove wrong the previous person or can
add more evidence. The users can then make up their minds on what to
make of what is provided on the site; like a universal university
filled with students, professors and everyone else with internet
access. Having such an educational source would benefit anyone who uses
the web for information, not only for school matters, but for work.
Lawyers, doctors and even writers can do research here to find what
they need to know. Such a web site would be a revolution indeed, said
Robin Trehan
The Sun Storage 7000 line, formerly known as "Amber Road," is intended to bolster the company's storage business by adding open source to its hardware, in a move to make it easier for customers to install and configure the systems and reduce costs. The line will be part of the company's Unified Storage Systems.
Sun's three open-source storage are designed to increase the performance while lower cooling requirements via Sun's Solaris Zettabyte file system (ZFS). These are the new model:
• Sun Storage 7110: Ultra compact model with 2 terabytes (TB) of storage. Pricing is expected to begin at $10,000.
• Sun Storage 7210: Midrange storage featuring up to 48 TB of storage capacity in a four-unit form factor; includes support for write-optimized solid-state disks that use Sun's Flash Hybrid Storage Pool technology. Pricing begins at $34,995.
• Sun Storage 7410: Highly configurable storage system with support for up to a half-petabyte of capacity that includes support for read- and write-optimized solid-state drives and the Flash Hybrid Storage Pool technology. Pricing begins at $57,490 for a single-node version (12 TB)
These systems are also available in clustered configurations. The clustered 12TB version is expected to begin at $89,490.
BASEL, SWITZERLAND & NEWPORT BEACH, USA: Day Software, a leading provider of global content management and content infrastructure software, announced that the Swiss Open Systems User Group has honored Day Software with the Swiss Open Source Award 2008 in the business category. In honor of the Swiss Year of Informatics, the independent foundation developed this inaugural award to support the reputation of free and open software in Switzerland.
Criteria for the award's business category included exceptional competence and generous support of open source software projects. The judges, consisting of open source providers, experts and professional associations, selected Day due to its work with Apache Jackrabbit, Sling, and promotion of standards-based content repositories for its efforts on JSR 170.
At Day Software, most software engineers are open source developers, 75 percent of the developers working for Day have active involvement in at least one open source project. Currently, Day developers guide more than 25 open source projects. For example, Day's developers contribute in many ways to the Apache Software Foundation. Chief scientist Dr. Roy T. Fielding is a founder, vice president of the Apache HTTP Server project and former chairman of the Apache Software Foundation. Senior developer Bertrand Delacretaz is a member of the ASF Board of Directors, developer Jukka Zitting chairs the Apache Jackrabbit project, and developer Carsten Ziegeler chairs the Apache Excalibur project.
Day Software strongly supports open source projects in general. In November 2007, Day open-sourced a new Web application framework for building RESTful applications, Apache Sling, for community development and use. Based on the principles of the REST architectural style, defined by Dr. Fielding in his pioneering dissertation, Sling was developed to support rapid, scalable content application development atop Day's CRX, a commercially licensed version of the Apache Jackrabbit product. By making Sling available to the open source community, Day provides worldwide community use and leverages the expertise of developers from around the globe to stay on the cutting edge of REST-based content application development.
Day's employees also actively contribute to the specification of open standards. For example David Nüscheler, chief technology officer at Day Software, has led the JSR 170 specification for Java Content Repositories (JCR). Currently, he works on its successor, JSR 283, and leads Day's efforts to contribute to the draft CMIS specification.