Matt Asay spun up a cool video just like Soylent Green, open source software is people.
Matt Asay spun up a cool video just like Soylent Green, open source software is people.
The methodologies of Open Source are not owned or guided by any one person. The closest thing we have are the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and support of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The OSI certifies what qualifies as an open source license. They have as of late also been adding the TM to the Open Source logo which is the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for open source software. While the Free Software Foundation maintains the Free Software Definition – to show clearly what must be true about a particular software program for it to be considered free software.
Today LinuxWorld published a piece I sort of wrote. You see I finished it before the holidays originally titled the Who Matters the Most in Open Source Business. The fine folks at LinuxWorld did take a little bit of editorial license with the story and renamed it 2008’s Top Leaders in Open Source Business.
The list includes Marten Mickos, Andy Astor, John Roberts, Larry Augustin, Jonathan Swartz, The Redmonks (James, Michael, and Stephen), Raven Zachary, whurley, Anthony Gold, and Micahel Tiemann. All of whom I think are doing very important things in open source.
There were a couple of items left out of the piece that I thought were materially important. First, the disclosure. While I gave them the article to LinuxWorld I did include a disclosure on the piece that I think is important. Being a big advocate of the mantra YOYOW (You Own Your Own Words) I thought it important you understand a minimum about whose words they are.
[Disclosure: Mark Hinkle is a technologist and writer interested in open source, social media, and on-line communities. Mark is a former editor in chief of LinuxWorld Magazine and currently serves as the VP of Community at Zenoss Inc. He's had numerous professional and personal dealings with most of the business persons mentioned in this article. He can be reached via his blog -- www.socializedsoftware.com]
In the closing I mentioned that the list was far from exhaustive. Which is why I love Top 10 lists. What is almost as interesting about the list is who others think should be on the list.
This list is far from exhaustive you could make a case for many others including Mike Olson Vice President of Embedded Technologies at Oracle who was the former CEO of open source Sleepycat. Andrew Aiken of the Olliance group who consults to open source start-ups and corporations interested in open source like Microsoft. Andre Boisvert former proprietary tech titan at Oracle and SAS sits on a myriad of open source company board could be considered for the list as could Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth. As with any list eventually a line must be drawn.
Matt Asay suggested a few more:
Which gives me the idea. I think I will do a series of Take 5 articles (Five questions on open source and how are you are involved) with those not on the list and see if can learn something. Stay tuned.
Fortune Magazine has published a list of hot IPOs for 2008. What’s notable about the list is that four out of five of the highlighted companies have a significant investment in or are driven by open source related-products and services.
Matt Aslett from the 451 Group has some additional analysis on the topic. For those of us that are in open source software this is a big deal. What will be an even greater proof point of our model will be their financial success once they trade in an open market. Either way it’s an exciting time for open source software.
(via Matt Asay)