Open Source

Google informs me that one of the Open Source CMS Search Engines I built a while back now indexes over 18 million pages. Though it's a drop in the bucket next to broad category search engines, it's not too bad for a specialty search tool.

Just kicked off a new facebook group. Common interest here being Open Source content management systems. It's on open group, so feel free to join in, share insights & information.
Facebook | Open Source CMS Group - A Facebook group dedicated to sharing information about open source content management systems. [My Delicious Feed]

I am frequently amazed at the lack of awareness of open source issues regularly exhibited by IT decision makers. I’m not talking about the people inside the server room but rather the people on the other side of that deceptively thin barrier. The bad news is, of course, the guys with the teakwood tables tend to want to be involved in decisions relating to a firm’s IT direction. Though they may not be able to tell the mail server from the fax machine, they seem compulsive about being consulted on larger IT issues (defined as “those with dollar figures attached”).

MySQL CEO Marten Mickos spoke Wednesday at IDG's Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco. He presentation focused on Open Source Business Models. As part of that he offered a list of the different ways he's seen open source manifest itself in the market.

He lists (as per InfoWorld):
* Donations are needed, such as with the Apache and Eclipse foundations.
* Ads and placements are sold, like with Mozilla.
* Fees are charged if the free software is embedded in closed-source software. MySQL is an example of this.
* Services are fee-based, such as with Ubuntu.
* Ongoing maintenance, monitoring and binaries are sold, such as with MySQL again, or JBoss or Red Hat.
* Some enterprise features are sold, like with SugarCRM.

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz volunteers a little "Free Advice for the Litigious" in his most recent blog post. This one should be required reading for anyone interested in Microsoft's recent posturing re: software patents and licensing issues.

Well done, Mr. Schwartz.