Sometimes open source ideals make for the strangest–and most wonderful–bedfellows. We met Dr. Vandana Shiva–physicist, scientist, environmentalist, and activist–several years ago. Her work saving seeds and protecting traditional knowledge in the farming industry parallels the openness, transparency, collaboration and freedom of open source ideology. Her simple, clear explanation of why knowledge should be shared–and the devastating results should it be hoarded–is part of the essential truth that makes the work we do so incredibly important. But don’t take our word for it.
Get more information about Dr. Shiva’s work.
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 4 was released on February 15th, 2005. This report takes a look at the state of security for the first four years from release. We look at key metrics, specific vulnerabilities, and the most common ways users were affected by security issues. We will show some best practices that could have been used to minimise the impact of the issues, and also take a look at how the included security innovations helped.
This report is an update to the three-year risk report published in Red Hat Magazine in February 2007.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 was released today, around 8 months since the release of 5.2 in May 2008. So let’s use this opportunity to take a quick look back over the vulnerabilities and security updates we’ve made in that time, specifically for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server. » Read more
The State of Things is a show produced by North Carolina Public Radio. This week host Frank Stasio interviewed James Boyle, a Duke law professor and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, about his new book The Public Domain. Boyle explains how the public domain is getting smaller and smaller and the ways modern copyright laws are strangling accessibility to 20th century culture.
And speaking of Creative Commons, have you taken their non-commercial survey yet? If not, the deadline’s been extended. They want to understand how people feel about the term “noncommercial use.”
With 1.4 billion people connected, the Internet is the greatest collaborative network that mankind has experienced. One of the consequences of the growth of this network is a shift in the way knowledge is being created and distributed. As we move to an interconnected world, the balance of power is shifting from old, proprietary models of knowledge creation to the open source model that emphasizes collaboration and sharing. From management gurus to consulting firms to leading business schools, everyone is taking note of this new phenomenon that goes by various names like ‘Collaborative Innovation,’ ‘Open Innovation,’ or ‘Distributed Co-creation.’
The open source movement has pioneered the Collaborative Innovation trend, and it is no surprise that the rapid growth of the Internet and the equally rapid growth of the open source community have mirrored each other. The Linux® operating system and Wikipedia website are both good examples of open source projects that embody the ideals of Collaborative Innovation. And those in the technology industry aren’t the only ones to take notice. Policy makers and corporate leaders in all markets are exploring how this powerful trend can be harnessed for social and economic development. » Read more
John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was one of the keynote speakers at this summer’s Red Hat Summit. In this video, he explains how open source is critical to the healthcare industry and talks a little about his implanted RFID chip. Learn more about how Beth Israel saved $200,000 and reduced downtime to nearly zero.
It has always been possible to solve the puzzle of Red Hat’s success in the software business. By piecing together Red Hat’s open source ecosystem methodology for their own understanding, many businesses have had an eye on Red Hat in how to organize their open source development practices. The idea of community and enterprise editions, for example, owes a lot to the split of Red Hat Linux into Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Fedora Project.
Yet, there is a difference in how Red Hat started and grew compared to how some newer companies are running their open source-based business. Many offer closed source and proprietary add on components as part of their enterprise offering. Red Hat has always avoided this practice, striving to ship only 100% open source.
As the Fedora Project has grown, it has continued to pioneer open business practices that complement the open development methodology. The business model of taking the best from Fedora to support for seven years as Enterprise Linux lends itself to absorbing other practices from the Fedora community, ones outside of software. In every area, such as software packaging, documentation, translation, and marketing, Fedora’s open and highly visible work develops methodologies that affect the way Red Hat does business into the future.
It is not good enough to just act in this open, visible way. The open source model gains strength from community growth. The size of the community contributes to the quality of the software. This is in the best interests of everyone, including those who are paying actual staff to work actual hours on free software. Especially those people, as they get a force multiplier from efforts in the community, rather than going the road alone.
If it is a good idea to learn and grow business practices from community influence, wouldn’t the rest of the open source methodology concepts apply? The more pioneers of open business practices who are following an open source methodology, the stronger their work is.
One example of this is in the connection between EPEL, RHX, and ISVs. As the Fedora for ISVs page explains, there are a number of valuable gains to be had. By bringing your open source development work out more in to the community, you gain increased awareness, reduced maintenance burden, and a serious head start on the next version of Red Hat’s supported products.
This week, folks from RHX and Fedora’s Community Architecture teams are going to be at OSCON, talking with open source ISVs about getting their software in to Fedora. A strong point we are making is the chance to absorb and contribute to the open business practices, which are centered around the open source we hold in common, strengthed by all our contributions.
Remember Barton George? If you kept up with our Summit posts, then you’re familiar with Sun’s Linux guy, who was all over Boston blogging, podcasting, and interviewing. He’s back home now, but still putting together podcasts from his trip. Catch the two newest ones: Talking with Zmanda’s CEO, Chander Kant and Chattin’ with The Linux Foundation’s Executive Director, Jim “Led” Zemlin.
Also just in from the Red Hat News blog: One of our legal counsel penned a reader’s guide to the Firestar settlement. Totally worth reading if you’re at all interested in IP, licensing, and–in particular–the defensibility of the GPL.
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Authors: James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication Date: March 2008
Patent Failure examines the current state of the American patent system based on the way it has traditionally been treated–as a type of property system. Using the yardstick of property rights and the economics they influence, Bessen and Meurer analyze the costs and benefits of patents to innovators. Their qualification: “If the estimated costs of the patent system to an innovator exceed the estimated benefits, then patents fail as property.”
