OSS Watch observations
Back from the Open Source Advisory Service conference on "Support Models for Open Source Deployment". An interesting morning - the afternoon lagged a bit, as it was rather more "vendor hard-sell" in my opinion.
Some observations:
- The audience seemed to think they'd buy Open Source support if only it were available. Well, it's been available from a variety of sources for some time. Are we providing the wrong support? Or are we failing to get the message out about our services?
- Acceptance of Cocoon is growing. It was a delightful experience to see one of the panel - Joel Greenberg, Director of Strategic Development, Learning and Teaching Solutions, The Open University - extolling the virtues of Apache Cocoon to a full room. It's usually me doing the hard sell to directors, not the other way round.
- Sun don't know what they are doing. Novell know exactly what they are doing, but have over-eager sales types. My impression of Sun's presentation of "vendor support" was that it was weak, muddled, and ultimately clutching at straws. Sun definitely came across as a struggling company going for a community land-grab because they don't know how else to stimulate interest in their products. In contrast, the Novell presentation was slick, finely tuned, and focussed - though far too long.
- The DTI's message about open source software is too open to debate. Even amongst a room full of so-called experts, it was impossible to reach agreement on the "Open Source Software as a default exploitation route for government-funded software" paper. Does it demand the consideration of Open Source Software? Who knows.
I'll link to the OSS Watch site again when all the presentations are available. Some will make very interesting reading, for sure.
Posted by savs at June 4, 2004 1:08 AM