I’ve read two interesting posts this week about the financial benefits (or lack there of) of going with an open source solution. The first was a summary of a report from Gartner that states:

The economic slowdown should benefit open source software but whether open source software will benefit its owners is up in the air.

That’s according to Gartner Group predictions for 2009, which claims that over the next few years most enterprises using open source won’t manage those assets correctly and most won’t achieve any cost savings over proprietary software.

The second a post by Matt Asay at The Open Road:

CFO Magazine is running a great story about the cost savings available from open-source software. This is a topic that you’ll hear open-source vendors crow about, but it’s somewhat rare to actually get a CFO on the record about her benefits from open source, so it’s notable.
…
Open source has hit its stride, and often the open-source competition is actually better for enterprise requirements than the proprietary alternative. For example, if an enterprise is running Web applications, it would be daft to not at least consider using the leading Web database: MySQL.

Better software, lower price. What’s not to love?

The thing is - they’re both right! Open source can be a cost savings - but if the company doesn’t know how to handle that money then they’re still going to be broke It’s important to note that in the first article, the focus isn’t on the actual cost of maintaining an open source app - it’s on the company’s management of their funds.

Joe Lucia, who I’ve heard speak a few times, talks about this a lot. In fact, he asks that we take that cost savings over the proprietary systems we’re replacing and reinvest it into open source development so that in the end we’re not really saving any money, but investing in making our new product that much better.

Open Source the news:

The future for the BBC lies in the technology that can open it up to the world, just as technology gave it life last century. In the corporate world, Facebook, Apple and Google have launched platform services that allow external developers and companies to build services using their code - but the BBC is uniquely placed to use those same principles to create a cultural and commercial resource for the nation.

In post-Hutton 2004, startup investor and former BBC strategy manager Azeem Azhar proposed a “BBC Public Licence” that would allow both the public and business to use BBC content and code to build on, play with and share. It seems his vision is finally coming to life. “Four years on, the BBC is in a much stronger position to do this,” says Azhar. “It has the opportunity to create a new ecosystem, just as MySQL [the open source database system], as a platform, created an ecosystem around itself.”

Read more of The BBC can be an open source for all of UK plc by Jemima Kiss

This from LibLime:

Anaheim, CA–July 1, 2008–LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries and the eXtensible Catalog (XC) project– an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded project currently underway at the University of Rochester’s River Campus Libraries– have announced a new partnership agreement to ensure future compatibility between the XC project and Koha, the first open-source integrated library system.

The XC/LibLime partnership will ensure that the open-source software being developed as part of the XC project and the Koha open-source integrated library system will be fully compatible with each other, enabling current and future users of Koha to take advantage of the added capabilities for managing and distributing metadata that XC will offer. These benefits include facilitating the ability to combine legacy metadata with emerging schemas, and delivering library content to web content management and learning management systems.

Keep the open source library partnerships coming!!

Technorati Tags: liblime, koha, extensible catalog

I’m a bit behind on my open source news reading - so if you knew this already - sorry for the repeat.

Today, the #1 competitor to Digg, Condé Nast’s Reddit, says “Screw you guys, we’re going transparent”. That’s not an actual quote, but the company’s actions say that in a nutshell.

Condé Nast is opening up Reddit’s codebase to developers, your moms and dads, your pet fish, and whoever else has a computing device hooked up to the interwebs.

This announcement via DownloadSquad. On the new Reddit code page you can find more information about the secret sauce behind this social news tool.

We’ve always strived to be as open and transparent with our users as possible, and this is the next logical step. When we say ‘open-source’ we mean specifically that the code behind reddit is available to the public for download, and we’re inviting the public to submit code to help improve the site.

Reddit is unique in the social news scene in that we have a huge community of developers. It seems only natural that we give you all in that community a chance to contribute back to reddit and make it a better place for everyone. We know reddit’s success has less to do with our technology than it does with you, our community, and now we want to let our community improve our technology.

Technorati Tags: reddit

Last month I announced that Relais International was open sourcing it’s interlibrary loan software. Yesterday I read that Relais International will now be partnering with LibLime.

LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, and Relais International, Inc. world leader in resource sharing solutions for libraries, are pleased to announce a new strategic partnership between the two companies. This development comes shortly after Relais International’s announcement of its intent to release the Relais resource sharing and document delivery products under an open-source license.

Read more.

I just received an announcement that Relais International will be moving all or part of their software to an open source model.

Relais International has been working with libraries to develop systems to assist in providing a full range of interlibrary loan and document delivery services, for almost 10 years.

More on this will be presented at the Seventh Annual Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference from September 18-19, 2008 at Portland Community College’s Sylvania Campus in Portland, Oregon.

For now you can read the press release announcing this big decision!

This via the Web4Lib mailing list:

On March 31, 2008, I will be launching the website Open Source In Libraries. The primary goal of this project is to help libraries discuss and freely use open source software to suit their needs. You are all welcome to join this community and help it grow. This is a “we” thing, not a “me” thing. Please visit the website and become a member of this new community. It’s free for everyone. There’s also an email listserv you can join. Lets all work together!

Website: http://www.opensourceinlibraries.com
Listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/opensourceinlibraries

The following quote courtesy of Jeff Humphrey:

“Open source software is free in the sense that it grants freedom to the user through the absence of proprietary control. Though much open source is available without licensing fees, this does not necessarily include liberation of price. The open source model shifts most of the costs from acquisition to operations and maintenance.

One of the best things about open source software is that the code is made available to everyone to modify as they see fit. This allows users to develop the program or make changes to suit their needs even if a project is totally abandoned by the original creator. With open source, we are no longer at the mercy of closed source vendors with their forced upgrades and compatibility issues.

Open source is about community where usability takes priority over profitability. Enhancements are shared for the benefit of all users. Bug fixes are the result of users pulling together and are often resolved much faster than a closed source patch, saving organizations time and money.”
–
Allen D. Tate
Head of Computer Services
Ohio Township Public Library System
4111 Lakeshore Dr
PO Box 850
Newburgh, IN 47629
(812) 853-5468 x 313

http://www.ohio.lib.in.us/ (Library Home Page)
http://www.linuxinlibraries.com/ (Linux In Libraries)

Yesterday Mozilla announced that Firefox has been downloaded 500 million times!!

Firefox just reached 500,000,000 downloads. This is an absolutely phenomenal milestone for Firefox. It is sort of hard to imagine what that number means. For some perspective, that’s roughly the audience size of 10,000 Rome Colosseums combined. It would be the weight, in kilograms, of 8,500 Boeing 747 airplanes. In dollars, for $500 million you and 15 of your friends can fly to the International Space Station.

To celebrate they’re asking that we help people in need:

OR, you can affect change and invite 15 of your friends to play a game and feed 25,000 people. With your help we can break another milestone today with FreeRice.com –500,000,000 grains of donated rice in one day. Imagine helping to feed the hungry while picking up some new vocabulary too!

This is great news! Now if more libraries would just make Firefox their default browser on patron stations - imagine how many more downloads Mozilla would be able to report??

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What the heck is an Open Source Evangelist? That’s the question I’ve heard several times over the last month since announcing my new position at LibLime. To make it short and sweet, to evangelize is to spread the good news. So, it’s my job to spread the good news of open source to librarians.

Now for the big question, how am I supposed to spread the good news of open source to libraries around the world all by my lonesome? Well, we’re going to start small. This blog will be my platform and I want to hear from all of you who have stories to share or questions to ask. I want to learn from you as you learn from me and others. If you’ve heard me talk before you know that I’m an advocate for open-source solutions in libraries, I’ve found that the open-source community and the library community both follow a similar set of guidelines, making them the perfect partners in a push for change and enhancements for the library world.

In short, this introductory post of mine, is also a call for your assistance. For years I’ve been writing and presenting for those of us in library land and in all that time I’ve made it perfectly clear that I stand for learning. I don’t think that any one person holds all the knowledge, but I do think that librarians as a community hold a whole darn lot of it! It is for this reason that I think the best way to start in my new role is to ask to hear from all of you. I am looking for stories of how your library has used open source to improve work flow and productivity. I’m looking for stories of how open source has or hasn’t solved your problems. I’m looking to find answers to your commonly asked questions and to educate you about the pros and cons (yes, cons) of open-source solutions.

Over the next few months, I’m going to be sharing stories, answers and solutions with you all, and as we get to know each other better, I’ll look to you to help me spread the good news about open source other librarians. That’s my grand plan, that’s how I hope to make the most of my new position at LibLime and I look forward to hearing what you all have to say and to sharing knowledge with the rest of the community.

If you’d like to contact me you can do so at nicole.engard [at] liblime.com, AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard, or by phone at 888.564.2457 x714. In addition to writing here at Open Sesame, I’m also available to come talk to your organizations about open source and how it’s being used in libraries. To see where I’m teaching next, you can keep an eye on my public calendar.