| Open Source Business Conference looms in Boston |
Oct. 18, 2005
Two weeks remain until the opening of the Open Source Business Conference, set for Nov. 1-2 at the Boston Marriott in Newton, Mass. OSBC's program will bring together highly placed execs from the best-known names in enterprise IT (Sun, Microsoft, Novell, Sybase, Intel, EMC, SugarCRM, among others), plus some of open source's most influential thought leaders, including the creators and/or maintainers of Linux, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, JBoss, and a variety of newer open source enterprise apps.
This combination of the best of both the commercial IT and open source worlds, organizers hope, will foster the most executive-friendly open source event ever.
"We want to explore the business cases, and the business needs of open source, for end users and the ISV," co-chair Matt Asay of Novell said. "Our goal is to deliver cutting-edge content on open source trends and how they affect the enterprise, both CIOs and vendors to those CIOs."
"With the growing success of Linux the past few years, many folks that believe in open source are asking, 'So, what do we need to do to push [open source adoption] to the next level?" Asay added.
Asay said the three key take-away messages of the show are intended to be: - The inevitable evolution of enterprise applications to OSS: Covering the trend of OSS as fad or long-term alternative to proprietary models. Present frameworks indicate CIOs are likely to see their own applications go toward OSS.
- Pitching the CIO: Three startup open source companies pitch actual CIOs and attempt to prove the substance of their products.
- The future of enterprise email
Overall, organizers of the OSBC are trying to bring together four key types of business professionals, in order to reduce fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) around open source, and to increase a real world understanding about open source among execs.
Attendees can expect to learn the following:- Enterprise IT buyers will have found innovative ways to exercise increased control over vendors as they discover methods for integrating into the open source development community;
- Vendors will learn how to leverage open source as a business weapon without sacrificing profit margins;
- VCs will be able to meet with industry experts, and get their insights on how to help shape their investment decisions. They will also meet a host of specially-invited early-stage open source startups
- IP attorneys will navigate the sometimes complex legal issues inherent in open source licensing and will learn practical policies for protecting critical IP assets while enabling their clients/corporations to take advantage of open source software and business development.
Who will be presenting
Here is a sample of what's on the program:- Hal Stern, CTO-Software, Sun Microsystems Software: "Why Open Source is Good Business;"
- David Skok, General Partner, Matrix Partners: "CIO Panel: Beyond Linux in the Enterprise;" panel members include Gary Beach, Group Publisher, CXO Media, Inc.; Ameet Patel, Managing Executive, LabMorgan (JP Morgan Chase); Don Haile, President & CIO, Fidelity Investments; Ron Rose, CIO, Priceline.com; Jaime Cash, Vice President, Technology, NLG; Barry Strasnick, CIO, CitiStreet;
- Eben Moglen, Chair, Software Freedom Law Center: "Legal Risks of Free Software and Open Source: Why You Should Worry Less."
Others participating in keynotes, panel discussions, or seminars include: - Moshe Bar, Founder & CTO, XenSource
- David Boloker, CTO, Emerging Internet Technologies, IBM
- Jin Chun, Chief Applications Architect, State Street Corp.
- Scott Dietzen, President & CTO, Zimbra
- Marc Fleury, Founder & CEO JBoss, Inc.
- Dirk Hohndel, Linux and Open Source Strategy, Intel
- Bob Lisbonne, General Partner, Matrix Partners
- Heather Meeker, Shareholder Greenberg Traurig, LLP
- Marten Mickos, CEO, MySQL
- John Newton, Founder & Chairman, Alfresco
- Kim Polese, CEO, SpikeSource
- John Roberts, CEO & Co-Founder, SugarCRM
- Ron Rose, CIO, Priceline.com
- Lawrence Rosen, Partner Rosenlaw & Einschlag
- Steve Russell, Managing Director, UBS Warburg
- Robin Vasan, Managing Director, Mayfield Partners
Asay expects the mix of attendees to foster lots of questions during the presentation, and discussion afterwards. "These are not just product pitches," Asay said. "These talks are designed to let all sorts of executives discover the opportunities in open source, either to run in their business or as a business."
Conference registration is available here.
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