So you're thinking of creating an open source community around your code? Here are some things you ought to know before you make your plans too firm. Community Types: There is no single "open source community." Rather, there are many groups of people gathered around many free software commons. Those gatherings are themselves of several different types; you really need to understand those differences. Payment at the Point of Value: Open source is of course free software. But the freedom you're finding brings you value varies depending on the role you play with respect to the software. "Free" doesn't mean the same to everyone. Open Core Is Bad For You: The "open core" business model is popular with VC-funded startup companies but does not deliver the core freedoms from which lasting business value for customers is derived. Transparency and Privacy: The key success factor in an open source community is the equality of all the participants. A strong community is characterized by high levels of transparency about the project coupled with strong respect for the privacy of the participants. Read why you should not impose your business model on anyone.
Open source software is changing the world of Information Technology. But making it work for your company is far more complicated than simply installing a copy of Linux. If you are serious about using open source to cut costs, accelerate development, and reduce vendor lock-in, you must institutionalize skills and create new ways of working. You must understand how open source is different from commercial software and what responsibilities and risks it brings. Open Source for the Enterprise is a sober guide to putting open source to work in the modern IT department. Open source software is software whose code is freely available to anyone who wants to change and redistribute it. New commercial support services, smaller licensing fees, increased collaboration, and a friendlier platform to sell products and services are just a few of the reasons open source is so attractive to IT departments. Some of the open source projects that are in current, widespread use in businesses large and small include Linux, FreeBSD, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, JBOSS, and Perl. These have been used to such great effect by Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, and major commercial and financial firms, that a wave of publicity has resulted in recent years, bordering on hype. Large vendors such as IBM, Novell, and Hewlett Packard have made open source a lynchpin of their offerings. Open source has entered a new area where it is being used as a marketing device, a collaborative software development methodology, and a business model. This book provides something far more valuable than either the cheerleading or the fear-mongering one hears about open source. The authors are Dan Woods, former CTO of TheStreet.com and a consultant and author of several books about IT, and Gautam Guliani, Director of Software Architecture at Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions. Each has used open source software for some 15 years at IT departments large and small. They have collected the wisdom of a host of experts from IT departments, open source communities, and software companies. Open Source for the Enterprise provides a top to bottom view not only of the technology, but of the skills required to manage it and the organizational issues that must be addressed. Here are the sorts of questions answered in the book: Why is there a "productization gap" in most open source projects? How can the maturity of open source be evaluated? How can the ROI of open source be calculated? What skills are needed to use open source? What sorts of open source projects are appropriate for IT departments at the beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert levels? What questions need to be answered by an open source strategy? What policies for governance can be instituted to control the adoption of open source? What new commercial services can help manage the risks of open source? Do differences in open source licenses matter? How will using open source transform an IT department? Praise for Open Source for the Enterprise:"Open Source has become a strategic business issue; decisions on how andwhere to choose to use Open Source now have a major impact on theoverall direction of IT abilities to support the business both withcapabilities and by controlling costs. This is a new game and onegenerally not covered in existing books on Open Source which continue toassume that the readers are 'deep dive' technologists, Open Source for the Enterprise provides everyone from business managers to technologistswith the balanced view that has been missing. Well worth the time toread, and also worth encouraging others in your enterprise to read as well." ----Andy Mulholland - Global CTO Capgemini "Open Source for the Enterprise is required reading for anyone workingwith or looking to adopt open source technologies in a corporateenvironment. Its practical, no-BS approach will make sure you're armedwith the information you need to deploy applications successfully (aswell as helping you know when to say "no"). If you're trying to sell opensource to management, this book will give you the ammunition you need.If you're a manager trying to drive down cost using open source, thisbook will tell you what questions to ask your staff. In short, it's aclear, concise explanation of how to successfully leverage open sourcewithout making the big mistakes that can get you fired." ----Kevin Bedell - founding editor of LinuxWorld Magazine
Free/Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning systems (FOS-ERP) are gaining popularity and acceptance due to two main factors: their lack of licensing fees and customizability. Given this, organizations are able to easily adopt and manipulate these systems to meet their individual needs. Free and Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning: Systems and Strategies unites research on FOS-ERP, comparing differences with proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning products, and demonstrating key research factors. It includes cases demonstrating how small enterprises have benefited from FOS-ERP in Spain and in Belgium, along with difficulties encountered and solutions developed. This essential reference addresses key issues such as security and legal risks, as well as challenges, opportunities, and barriers to adoption.
It's a plain fact: regardless of how smart, creative, and innovative your organization is, there are more smart, creative, and innovative people outside your organization than inside. Open source offers the possibility of bringing more innovation into your business by building a creative community that reaches beyond the barriers of the business. The key is developing a web-driven community where new types of collaboration and creativity can flourish. Since 1998 Ron Goldman and Richard Gabriel have been helping groups at Sun Microsystems understand open source and advising them on how to build successful communities around open source projects. In this book the authors present lessons learned from their own experiences with open source, as well as those from other well-known projects such as Linux, Apache, and Mozilla.* Winner of 2006 Jolt Productivity Award for General Books* Describes how open source development works and offers persuasive reasons for using it to help achieve business goals.* Shows how to use open source in day-to-day work, discusses the various licenses in use, and describes what makes for a successful project.* Written in an engaging style for executives, managers, and engineers that addresses the human and business issues involved in open source development as well as its history, philosophy, and future
The corporate market is now embracing free, "open source" software like never before, as evidenced by the recent success of the technologies underlying LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Each is the result of a publicly collaborative process among numerous developers who volunteer their time and energy to create better software. The truth is, however, that the overwhelming majority of free software projects fail. To help you beat the odds, O'Reilly has put together Producing Open Source Software, a guide that recommends tried and true steps to help free software developers work together toward a common goal. Not just for developers who are considering starting their own free software project, this book will also help those who want to participate in the process at any level. The book tackles this very complex topic by distilling it down into easily understandable parts. Starting with the basics of project management, it details specific tools used in free software projects, including version control, IRC, bug tracking, and Wikis. Author Karl Fogel, known for his work on CVS and Subversion, offers practical advice on how to set up and use a range of tools in combination with open mailing lists and archives. He also provides several chapters on the essentials of recruiting and motivating developers, as well as how to gain much-needed publicity for your project. While managing a team of enthusiastic developers -- most of whom you've never even met -- can be challenging, it can also be fun. Producing Open Source Software takes this into account, too, as it speaks of the sheer pleasure to be had from working with a motivated team of free software developers.
Many small and medium scale businesses cannot afford to procure expensive cybersecurity tools. In many cases, even after procurement, lack of a workforce with knowledge of the standard architecture of enterprise security, tools are often used ineffectively. The Editors have developed multiple projects which can help in developing cybersecurity solution architectures and the use of the right tools from the opensource software domain. This book has 8 chapters describing these projects in detail with recipes on how to use opensource tooling to obtain standard cyber defense and the ability to do self-penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. This book also demonstrates work related to malware analysis using machine learning and implementation of honeypots, network Intrusion Detection Systems in a security operation center environment. It is essential reading for cybersecurity professionals and advanced students.
Since its emergence in the mid-1980s through the protagonism of free software and open source movements, the concept of freely shareable technology has steadily established itself in the following decades to enter the 21st century as a leading industrial paradigm. From the original ambit of software technology, the principles of collaborative construction of publicly accessible knowledge grounding the open source paradigm have been extended to embrace any intellectual artifact made available under non-exclusive rights of utilization, development, and distribution. It is noteworthy, however, that whilst on one hand it is not difficult to enumerate advantages of the use of open source products by individuals and organizations—whether related to cost reduction, socio-technological inclusion, governance of technology development, security and privacy transparency, among others—on the other hand, it is not as immediate to identify their motivation to develop open source technology. While there may surely be initiatives driven by either ethical grounds, personal avocation, or public policies, those reasons alone do not explain the lasting success of many large community-driven projects, nor why large commercial enterprises massively invest in open source development. Business Models and Strategies for Open Source Projects investigates the rationales and the strategy underlying companies’ decisions to produce and release open source products as well as which business models have succeeded. Covering topics such as embedded systems, open source ecosystems, and software companies, this premier reference source is a valuable resource for entrepreneurs, business leaders and managers, students and educators of higher education, librarians, software developers, researchers, and academicians.
"Free/Open Source Software Development" uses a multitude of research approaches to explore free and open source software development processes, attributes of their products, and the workings within the development communities.
The pervasiveness of and universal access to modern Information and Communication Technologies has enabled a popular new paradigm in the dissemination of information, art, and ideas. Now, instead of relying on a finite number of content providers to control the flow of information, users can generate and disseminate their own content for a wider audience. Open Source Technology: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications investigates examples and methodologies in user-generated and freely-accessible content available through electronic and online media. With applications in education, government, entertainment, and more, the technologies explored in these volumes will provide a comprehensive reference for web designers, software developers, and practitioners in a wide variety of fields and disciplines.
