Open Source Business Resource

Value Co-creation: Part 2

2009-12-01T12:50:00.001-05:00

The December issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The editorial theme this month is Value Co-creation and the authors include:

Michael Etgar, Professor at the School of Business Administration in the College of Management– Academic Studies in Israel, presents several factors which may enhance the ability of consumers to engage in co-production.

Tony Bailetti and David Hudson provide concrete examples of co-creation projects in vendor neutral ecosystems using lessons learned from operating the Lead to Win ecosystem.

Stoyan Tanev, Mette Knudsen and Wolfgang Gerstlberger, all from the University of Southern Denmark, share their insights from an attempt to position value co-creation within an integrative vision for innovation management research and practices.

Liz Sanders, President of MakeTools, and George Simons, a researcher into innovation strategies, compare three types of value co-creation: monetary, use/experience and social.

Alex Pedrosa, Assistant Professor at The Mads Clausen Institute, highlights the first results of a qualitative study that focuses on the different types of value stakeholders can expect from co-creating innovations.

Venkat Mangudi answers the question "what lessons can "green" computing learn from open source?"

The editorial theme for the upcoming January issue is "Success Factors" and submissions are due by December 20. Contact the editor if you are interested in a submission.

Part 1: Value Co-creation

2009-11-01T11:29:00.002-05:00

The November issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The editorial theme this month is Value Co-creation and the authors include:

Kim op den Kamp from the Technical University Eindhoven provides insights from her research into three main business model elements of co-creation communities: the value proposition, the value network, and the revenue model.

Stephen Allen, Tony Bailetti, and Stoyan Tanev present their research on the key components of value co-creation between firms and end customers based on the application of web search and Principal Component Analysis techniques.

Aron Darmody, a Doctoral Candidate at the Schulich School of Business, demonstrates how granting consumers freedom through co-creation has become the most effective mode of production for contemporary marketers.

Tore Kristensen, a Professor at Copenhagen Business School, explores the nature of personal transformations and their co-creation aspects.

Anna Kirah, Vice President of CPH Design, shares experience driven insights on how co-creation can help business in an age of uncertainty.

Lots of Interest in Co-creation

2009-10-27T07:14:00.003-04:00

One of the topics I often see discussed (and griped about) in open source circles is the relationship between companies and individual creators (e.g. developers). Do/should companies make profits from the sweat of an individual's effort? Can there be mutually beneficial relationships between companies and individuals? These types of questions fall under the category of "value co-creation", which was to be the editorial focus of the November issue of the OSBR.

I say "was" as we received so many submissions for this issue, we will be publishing them over November and December 2009. The lineup will be:

November:

Co-creation: a New Way of Doing Business in an Age of Uncertainty, Anna Kirah

The Micro- and Macro-levels of Co-creation: How Transformations Change People’s Preferences, Tore Kristensen

How Companies use the Internet as a Co-creation Channel, Stephen Allen, Tony Bailetti & Stoyan Tanev

Viable Business Models for Corporate Co-creation Communities, Kim op den Kamp

Value Co-creation and New Marketing, Aron Darmody

December:

Ways of Engaging Consumers in Co-production, Michael Etgar

A Framework for Value Co-creation in Design, Liz Sanders & George Simons

Coral CEA: An Example of Ecosystem Co-creation, Tony Bailetti

Value Co-creation as Part of an Integrative Vision of Innovation Management, Stoyan Tanev, Mette Kmudsen and Wolfgang Gerstlberger

Co-created Value During Innovation Development, Alex Pedrosa

Congratulations to Coral CEA

2009-10-03T07:49:00.002-04:00

The government of Ontario announced yesterday that it is contributing 9.3 million dollars to the Coral CEA initiative. The Ottawa Citizen article is here, the Carleton University press release is here, and the congratulations page is in the October issue of the OSBR as well as here.

Arts & Media

2009-10-01T17:06:00.002-04:00

The October issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The editorial theme this month is Arts & Media and the authors include:

John Bell from the University of Maine New Media department describes how open source tools and philosophies can be adapted to facilitate other forms of distributed creative endeavours. He introduces two tools developed by the Still Water Lab, The Pool and the Variable Media Questionnaire, and describes how several of the ideas used in software development have influenced Still Water's approach to making tools that support artistic production.

Karen Opas-Lanouette, editor for Ucreate Media, discusses the historic genesis of one company's development of a portal and platform system that enables creators and their fans to work collaboratively between different mediums. Her examination includes how the company met the challenges that arose and which are common to many startups.

Anthony Whitehead, Director of the Carleton University School of Information Technology, examines how open source tools and content can be used throughout the entire process of film creation. He describes many of the tools which are available for every step in the production pipeline.

Aaran Duncan, owner of Digital Deceptions, and Glenn McKnight, owner of Global Catalysts Consulting Service, explore the increasingly intersecting worlds of Social Media, mobile, and open source. They describe how Social Media has the potential to change the way communities use and create open source.

As always, we encourage readers to share articles of interest with their colleagues, and to provide their comments either online or directly to the authors. We hope you enjoy this issue of the OSBR.

The editorial theme for the upcoming November issue of the OSBR is Co-Creation and the guest editor will be Stoyan Tanev from the University of Southern Denmark. Submissions are due by October 20--contact the Editor if you are interested in a submission.

The Entrepreneurial Effect

2009-09-30T13:23:00.002-04:00

The Entrepreneurial Effect is an initiative by entrepreneurs to create a forum to exchange practical and pragmatic advice. The first product is a book that provides practical advice to entrepreneurs. Over 25 experts contributed an article each and the book is meant to be a knowledge source for those decisions faced by start-ups.

Open Source Business Intelligence (BI)

2009-09-01T11:43:00.002-04:00

The September issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The editorial theme this month is Business Intelligence and the authors include:

John Kemp, a Principal Consultant, and Benjamin Dietz, a BI Consultant, provide a primer on BI, introducing the terms and concepts used throughout the issue.

David Currie, founder of Clearview Informatics, examines the keys to success that allow an organization to extract maximum value from an investment in BI software.

John Kemp takes a look at how buying patterns have changed and what it means for businesses looking at open source BI software.

Steve Holub, a BI Consultant, reports on a recent survey of open source software tools used in BI and data warehousing systems.

Benjamin Dietz and Lily Singh of SQL Power Group compare the features of four popular open source reporting solutions.

Thierry Badard, CTO of Spatialytics, highlights the need for geospatial BI software and the integration of the spatial component in a BI software stack in order to consistently enable geo-analytical tools.

Tom Bondur, Content Development Manager in the Developer Communications group of Actuate Engineering, and Jason Weathersby, the BIRT Evangelist at Actuate Corporation, introduce BIRT and discuss why Actuate chose the open source development model and the benefits that this project brings to the BI user community.

Sam Selim answers the question "What will Oracle do with Sun's open source offerings?".

The editorial theme for the upcoming October issue is Arts & Media and the Guest Editor is Anthony Whitehead from Carleton University. Submissions for this issue are due by September 20--contact the Editor if you are interested in a submission.

Open Source Business Intelligence (BI)

2009-08-25T18:34:00.005-04:00

The lineup for the upcoming September issue is pretty impressive:

Sam Selim, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SQL Power Group Inc., discusses how open source is shifting the buying and software evaluation patterns of BI users.

John Kemp, a Principal Consultant, and Benjamin Dietz, a BI Consultant, provide a primer on BI, introducing the terms and concepts used throughout the issue.

David Currie, founder of Clearview Informatics, examines the keys to success that allow an organization to extract maximum value from an investment in BI software.

John Kemp takes a look at how buying patterns have changed and what it means for businesses looking at open source BI software.

Steve Holub, a BI Consultant, reports on a recent survey of open source software tools used in BI and data warehousing systems.

Benjamin Dietz and Lily Singh of SQL Power Group compare the features of four popular open source reporting solutions.

Thierry Badard, CTO of Spatialytics, highlights the need for geospatial BI software and the integration of the spatial component in a BI software stack in order to consistently enable geo-analytical tools.

Tom Bondur, Content Development Manager in the Developer Communications group of Actuate Engineering, and Jason Weathersby, the BIRT Evangelist at Actuate Corporation, introduce BIRT and discuss why Actuate chose the open source development model and the benefits that this project brings to the BI user community.

August Issue of OSBR Available

2009-08-01T19:04:00.001-04:00

The August issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The editorial theme this month is Tech Entrepreneurship and the authors include:

Brian Hurley, CEO of Purple Forge, provides an overview of ecosystem models and highlights, through numerous examples, how it is possible to take advantage of the related, like-minded and even competitive players in an ecosystem.

Carlo Daffara, head of research at Conecta, presents the results of a recent survey of over 200 open source companies, demonstrating the economic advantages of open source across a wide variety of business models and commercialization approaches.

Peter Carbone, an ICT executive and Coral CEA champion, discusses an approach to commercialization through the creation of a new ecosystem for communications enabled applications.

Gordon Quinn, CEO of iPic Innovations, writes about entrepreneurship in an Internet-enabled world. The Internet was certainly disruptive and spawned a number of new ecosystems. Gordon looks at how to disrupt for gain in that context.

John Boden, CTO at Movius Interactive, takes on the issue of entrepreneurship within existing enterprises. Innovation and culture are closely linked and he explores the role open source can play in stimulating both.

James Bowen, an entrepreneur and adjunct professor at uOttawa's Telfer School of Management, answers the question "what do investors look for in a business venture?".

The editorial theme for the upcoming September issue of the OSBR is "business intelligence" and the guest editor will be Mike Andrews from SQL Power. Submissions are due by August 20--contact the Editor if you are interested in a submission.

Upcoming Issue on Tech Entrepreneurship

2009-07-24T12:24:00.003-04:00

The upcoming issue is being prepared for publication on August 1st. This month's authors include:

Brian Hurley, an entrepreneur and CEO at Purple Forge, provides an overview of ecosystems models and why they matter. Brian also highlights, through numerous examples, how it is possible to take advantage of the related, like-minded and even competitive players in an ecosystem.

Carlo Daffara, head of research at Conecta, has conducted a survey of over 200 open source companies and provided what amounts to a map of entrepreneurship in that space. Carlo clearly demonstrates the economic advantages of open source across a wide variety of business models and commercialization approaches.

Peter Carbone, an ICT executive and Coral CEA champion, discusses a new approach to commercialization through the creation of a new ecosystem for communications enabled applications. This is an exciting effort in terraforming a space to create a new ecosystem.

Gordon Quinn, Co-Founder & CEO of iPic Innovations Incorporated, writes about entrepreneurship and users' experience in a world that assumes the Internet. The Internet was certainly disruptive and spawned a number of new ecosystems. Gordon looks at how to disrupt for gain in that context.

John Boden, CTO & Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Movius Interactive, takes on the issue of entrepreneurship within existing enterprises. Innovation and culture are closely linked and he explores the role open source can play in stimulating both.

James Bowen, an entrepreneur and adjunct professor at uOttawa’s Telfer School of Management, considers a number of the attributes of the entrepreneur. James provides a perspective on the importance of the quality of thinking and quality of people with respect to success in all aspects of a venture.

Dave Hudson from Lead to Win is guest editor and I think you'll agree that he has done an excellent job of finding authors to discuss the editorial theme of Tech Entrepreneurship.

July Issue of OSBR Available

2009-07-02T09:50:00.002-04:00

The July issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The editorial theme this month is Collaboration and the authors include:

Joseph Wilson, co-founder of the Treehouse Group, explains how successful adaptation to market conditions comes from collaboration across traditionally demarcated fields of study.

Stephen Huddart, Vice President of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, and Anil Patel, Executive Director of the Framework Foundation, propose the concept of Applied Collaboration Studios for the social sector.

Peter Deitz and Christine Egger from Social Actions describe how this organization applies open source principles to its products and processes.

Evan Andrews, an analyst at Sylvatica, discusses open analysis methods, software, and data that can be used to help companies become greener.

Norm Friesen, Canada Research Chair in E-Learning Practices at Thompson Rivers University, describes recent developments in the adaptation of open education resources.

Chris Tyler from Seneca College outlines Seneca's approach to sustainably involving students in open source communities in a course setting.

Andy Adler, Canada Research Chair in biomedical engineering at Carleton University, John C. Nash, retired Professor of Management in the Telfer School at the University of Ottawa, and Sylvie Noël, research scientist for the Communications Research Centre of Canada, introduce the TellTable open source system designed to allow single-user software applications to be managed in a collaborative manner.

The editorial theme for the upcoming August issue is Tech Entrepreneurship and the Guest Editor is David Hudson from Lead to Win. Submissions for this issue are due by July 20--contact the Editor is you are interested in a submission.

Upcoming July Issue

2009-06-27T07:47:00.004-04:00

Here's a sneak peek of the upcoming July issue on Collaboration:

Evan Andrews from Sylvatica discusses open analysis methods, software, and data that can be used to help companies, the economy, and society become greener, faster.

Joseph Wilson from the Treehouse Group provides examples of how successful adaptation to market conditions comes from collaboration with people across traditionally demarcated fields of study.

Norm Friesen from Thompson Rivers University describes recent developments in the adaptation of open source and open content to educational practices and technologies.

Chris Tyler from Seneca College outline's Seneca's approach to sustainably involving students in open source communities that has proven successful in a course setting.

Andy Adler from Carleton University, John C. Nash from the University of Ottawa, and Sylvie Noël from the Communications Research Centre of Canada introduce TellTable, an open source system designed to allow single-user software applications to be managed in a collaborative manner.

Peter Deitz and Christine Egger from Social Actions describe how this organization applies open source principles to the its products and processes.

Stephen Huddart from the McConnell Foundation and Anil Patel of the Framework Foundation propose the concept of Applied Collaboration Studios to engender a quantum shift in the social sector’s efficiency, reach, and impact through the combined use of open source technologies, social process tools and collaboration platforms.

Happy Birthday OSBR!

2009-06-23T08:45:00.002-04:00

Two years ago I was hired to launch a web 2.0 magazine to act as a resource on the business of open source. Since then we have published:

- 24 issues covering a wide range of editorial themes

- the works of 154 authors

I'd like to thank all of the guest editors and authors for their contributions. And the Public Knowledge Project for creating great open source publishing software.

Editorial Lineup

2009-06-22T15:38:00.002-04:00

The editorial themes and guest editors have been lined up for the rest of 2009:

July: Collaboration, Stephen Huddart
August: Tech Entrepreneurship, David Hudson
September: Business Intelligence, Mike Andrews
October: Arts & Media, Anthony Whitehead
November: Co-Creation, Stoyan Tanev
December: Bootstrapping Startups, John Callahan

Submissions are due the 20th of the month prior to publication. Author guidelines are here.

Building Sustainable Open Source Communities

2009-06-07T08:15:00.003-04:00

At OSCOMM 2009, researchers from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America came together to share early stage and ongoing research on building sustainable open source communities. Topics included ecosystem health, fostering participation, knowledge transfer, culture, and sustainable business models. OSS communities is a thriving area of research, with a high potential to impact practice. Expect to see articles from some of these international authors in upcoming issues of the OSBR.

OSCOMM 2009 is the 1st International Workshop on Building Sustainable Open Source Communities, held June 6 2009 in Skovde Sweden, co-located with OSS 2009.

Women in Open Source

2009-06-01T07:59:00.002-04:00

The June issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The editorial theme this month is "women in open source" and the authors include:

Rikki Kite of Linux Pro Magazine discusses the editorial theme.

Cathy Malmrose, CEO of ZaReason, introduces women who make a variety of contributions to open source from all corners of the world. She also shares interviews with Belinda Lopez, Training Project Manager for Canonical; Brenda Wallace, well-know blogger from New Zealand; and Andreia Gaita, Mono/Moonlight developer from Portugal.

Cat Allman, Developer Relations Specialist for the Open Source Programs Office at Google, discusses Google's efforts to reach out to the F/LOSS community, and she talks about their efforts to mentor high school and college students through the Google Highly Open Participation Contest and Google Summer of Code (GSoC).

Angela Byron, Senior Web Consultant at Lullabot and former GSoC participant, explains how fostering a healthy community around open source projects leads to better code.

Emma Jane Hogbin, Web developer and consultant, shares her experience with giving back to the community and explains how it is helping her open source business expand and gain new revenue streams.

Audrey Eschright, developer for Elevated Code and co-chair of the Open Source Bridge conference, offers an example of how to organize an open source project to encourage community development, and she suggests some tools that can make collaboration easier.

Stormy Peters, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, provides an overview of the community around the foundation and offers a look toward the future of the GNOME desktop environment.

Melanie Groves VonFange, an open source advocate, uses BSD as an example when looking at what role open source advocacy plays in increasing open source usage.

Selena Deckelmann, PostSQL specialist and co-chair of the Open Source Bridge conference, tells how the Portland open source community has increased participation by women and how other communities can benefit from their experiences.

Amanda McPherson, Vice President of Marketing and Developer Programs of the Linux Foundation, asks "So Are You a Contributor?". She also talks about Linux Foundation efforts to encourage a culture of inclusion.

A RESTful Implementation of Geospatial Web Services

2009-05-25T09:22:00.004-04:00

Geoff Zeiss gave a presentation recently at Summercamp which further discusses the points he raised in his article A RESTful Implementation of Geospatial Web Services. A pdf copy of the slides from his presentation have been added to the Table of Contents for the issue the article appears in. The pdf is also available for download as a "Supplementary files" in the right frame of the HTML version of the article. The video from his presentation should be available from the FOSSLC website within the next week or so.

OSBR authors: if you have a presentation that supplements your article, send me a copy of your slides and I'll add them to the OSBR website. A pdf version is preferred--we can also host or point to video and/or audio presentations.

Geospatial Issue en Francais

2009-05-25T09:14:00.003-04:00

Thanks to the translation efforts of Jean-Louis Duchesne, most of the articles in the March 2009 issue of the OSBR have been translated to French. The editorial theme for the March issue is "geospatial". The Table of Contents for that issue has been updated so you can easily access either the French or English versions.

If you're aware of any other translations or are interested in translating your article or another article of interest, contact me and I'll add a copy of the translated version to the OSBR website. Please include an attribution text in the translated language indicating who did the translation and if the translation is available elsewhere.

May Issue of OSBR Available

2009-05-01T16:11:00.002-04:00

The May issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats. The theme this month is "open source in government" and the authors include:

Gijs Hillenius, news editor of the Open Source Observatory and Repository, provides an overview of recent advancements and setbacks in the implementation of open source and open standards by public administrations in the 27 member states of the European Union.

Edgy Paiva, Director of IVIA, gives some examples of successful projects within the Brazilian Government that use open source and explains some difficulties for implementing open source.

Mike Gifford, president of OpenConcept Consulting, discusses the global momentum in federal government departments to support open source and problems with the current federal government's procurement process in Canada.

Darlene Meskell, Director of Intergovernmental Solutions at GSA, provides an overview of current open government initiatives in both the United States and other parts of the world.

Tom Schmit, an instructor at Riga Business School, and Zigmunds Zitmanis, Vice-Rector for Information Technology at Riga Technical University, discuss the reasons for the University's choice of an open source product as the application to provide the single point of entry into electronic services.

The editorial theme for the upcoming June issue is "women in open source" and the guest editor will be Rikki Kite from Linux Pro Magazine. Contact the editor if you're interested in a submission for this issue.

Upcoming Issue on Open Source in Government

2009-04-22T13:01:00.002-04:00

Here's a preview of some of the articles in the upcoming May issue on Open Source in Government:

Gijs Hillenius, from the EU's Open Source Observatory and Repository, provides an overview of the advancements and some of the setbacks of the implementation of open source and open standards by public administrations in the 27 member states of the European Union in 2008.

Edgy Paiva, Director of IVIA, shows how the Brazilian Government is using OSS, gives some examples of successful Brazilian projects that use OSS, explains some difficulties for implementing OSS, and makes a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of using OSS.

Darlene Meskell, Director of Intergovernmental Solutions at GSA, provides an overview of current open government initiatives in both the United States and other parts of the world.

Zigmunds Zitmanis, Vice-Rector for Information Technology at Riga Technical University, discuss the reasons for the decision of Riga Technical University in Latvia to choose an open source product as the application to provide the single point of entry into electronic services for the University.

2009 Lead to Win Program

2009-04-15T11:35:00.002-04:00

Ontario's Talent First Network today announced the 2009 Lead to Win program to be held in Ottawa.

The dates of the first 2009 six-day training program are:
- Tuesday May 19, Wed May 20, and Thurs May 21
- Tuesday June 23, Wed June 24, and Thurs June 25

They wish to recruit 30 excellent participants for the May-June session of the LTW program. Each participant must be willing and able to establish and grow a technology business in Canada's Capital Region. Each business is expected to employ six knowledge workers over the next three years.

The second 2009 session is scheduled for October and November 2009. We will also recruit 30 participants for the October-November session.

You can read about the results from the first Lead to Win program in Blood on the Tracks: 6 Years of Technical Entrepreneurship in Ottawa.

April Issue Available

2009-04-01T10:43:00.001-04:00

The April issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats from http://www.osbr.ca. The theme this month is "Open APIs" and the authors include:

TIM Program students provide a glossary of terms associated with Open APIs and present some resources that discuss their business value.

Michael Weiss from Carleton University describes a research framework to examine the structure of the mashup ecosystem and its growth over time using network analysis to obtain key characteristics of the ecosystem and identify significant ecosystem members and their relationships.

G.R. Gangadharan, a research scientist at the Novay in the Netherlands, provides an overview of open API licensing, provide examples from current open APIs, and briefly discusses open licensing of open APIs.

Owen Byrne, Senior Manager of Travelpod Labs, compares the features of the most commonly used JavaScript Toolkits used to create rich Internet applications and how freely available toolkits are able to compete against proprietary alternatives.

Steven Muegge and Roberto Milev of Carleton University describe a method for examining the evolving modularity of large-scale software systems and introduce a new modularity metric for comparing code bases of different size.

Byron Thom, a student at at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, summarizes a recent Torys Technology Law Speaker Series presentation which introduced a novel interpretation of copyright in the age of OSS using a spatial framework to deal with open source licenses.

The editorial theme for the upcoming May issue is is "Open Source in Government" and the guest editor will be James Bowen from the University of Ottawa. Contact the editor if you're interested in a submission for this issue.

Upcoming April Issue

2009-03-26T14:02:00.003-04:00

The theme for the upcoming April issue is "Open APIs". Here's a sneak peek at the authors and their articles:

Michael Weiss from Carleton University describes a research framework to examine the structure of the mashup ecosystem and its growth over time using network analysis to obtain key characteristics of the ecosystem and identify significant ecosystem members and their relationships.

G.R. Gangadharan, a research scientist at the Novay in the Netherlands, provides an overview of open API licensing, provide examples from current open APIs, and briefly discusses open licensing of open APIs.

Owen Byrne, Senior Manager of Travelpod Labs, compares the features of the most commonly used JavaScript Toolkits used to create rich Internet applications and how freely available toolkits are able to compete against proprietary alternatives.

Roberto Milev and Steven Muegge of Carleton University describe a method for examining the evolving modularity of large-scale software systems and introduce a new modularity metric for comparing code bases of different size.

Byron Thom, a student at at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, summarizes a recent Torys Technology Law Speaker Series where Professor Madison, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, introduced a novel interpretation of copyright in the age of OSS using a spatial framework to deal with open source licenses.

Paul Ramsey's article in French

2009-03-16T10:17:00.003-04:00

Directions Magazine has translated and republished Paul Ramsey's in French.

This is a good time to remind both readers and authors that authors retain copyright to their articles and that they are published under the Creative Commons attribution license. This means articles can be republished and remixed (e.g. translated, turned into a whitepaper, etc.), as long as the original author and the OSBR as the original publication source are attributed. We want to see authors' ideas reach the largest audience possible.

Video of March ToC Online

2009-03-16T09:56:00.000-04:00

The video of the March table of contents is now available online courtesy of Videotelephony.