AlwaysOn: Open Source Panel

Today's AlwaysOn conference included a panel session on called "Is the World Going Open Source?"  The panel was led by former Oracle COO turned VC Ray Lane and included panelists Jonathan Schwartz (Sun), Marten Mickos (MySQL), Kim Polese (SpikeSource), Rod Smith (IBM) and lawyer Rahul Kapoor (Morgan, Lewis, Dewey, Screwem and Howe LLP).  I think the answer is an obvious "yes" in the sense that not only is software increasingly open source, but startups are building on open source, we are seeing more and more open, collaborative technologies, and there's a raft of open and participative systems emerging, whether it's blogs, podcasting, peer-to-peer VOIP, social networking and so on.  Many of the old models of maintaining proprietary closed systems, whether they are enterprise software or communications systems, in my view will face increasingly tough propositions in the wake of the rapid growth of open source. 

As with all the sessions at the AlwaysOn conference, and consistent with Tony Perkins' view of "open media" the session is broadcast live over the internet open to all.  And there is also a running live chat projected live during the session.  (Sometimes the chat is actually more interesting than the presentation, especially when they call "BS" on the speaker.  Example: "Hey Ray, give it a rest!")

There were a few good points raised around the security and stability of open source and the notion of the whole open source stack, but the moderator spent too much time giving his perspective and wouldn't let the panelists do their job, which would have been more insightful.  The reality is that open source is being widely adopted and the growth continues to accelerate.  Linux is the fastest growing server platform, Apache is the dominant web server, Eclipse is the fastest growing IDE, MySQL is the fastest growing database, JBoss is the fastest growing application server, and so on.  To me, the panel didn't get to the heart of the most interesting issues on open source: why its being adopted, business models that make sense, how to tap into the power of open source, and where this whole open model is extending beyond software to media, community, communications etc. It was just a bit too old school and biased towards Ray's view as an investor in SpikeSource.  Here's another perspective on the panel session from Jeff Nolan of SAP Ventures.

Streaming videos of the all of the talks are available on the AlwaysOn web site.  You can also check out Jonathan Schwartz's keynote presentation, which if you haven't seen at other conferences is a good high-level perspective on commoditization and participation, bundled with the expected commercial for Sun. 

• AlwaysOn: Is the World Going Open Source?
• AlwaysOn: Jonathan Schwartz keynote