Business

Hello world:

Welcome to the business channel on opensource.com. In this channel we plan to explore how the principles of open source are influencing the world of business.

I have been working at open source software companies for the past 10 years and have experienced first hand how the open source model creates better software faster. I hadn't spent as much time thinking about open source beyond software.

This all changed for me last year. » Read more

6 CommentsPosted 24 Jan 2010 by Jeff Mackanic (Red Hat)

An interview with Dr. Tony O'Driscoll of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business (part II)

Prior to your academic career, you worked for 18 years within companies like IBM and Nortel, so you've had ample opportunity to observe from different perspectives the evolution toward “openness” in business. How is management coping with the shift toward open principles like meritocracy and open innovation? » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 23 Jan 2010 by Rebecca Fernandez (Red Hat)

Five questions with Anil Rathi of Idea Crossing

What the heck is an innovation competition? Can we compete and collaborate at the same time? Could we solve world hunger through collaborative competition?

I quizzed Anil Rathi, CEO of Idea Crossing, a company that hosts innovation competitions on behalf of companies and organizations, on these questions and more. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 21 Jan 2010 by Chris Grams

GlaxoSmithKline announces open innovation plans

Forbes reports that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline announced a plan to beginning collaborating with other companies on research into drugs for diseases that don't get a lot of attention, malaria being a key example. It sounds like open innovation in action. Read the Forbes article here, but here's a key quote: » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 21 Jan 2010 by Chris Grams

Giving creative projects a community kickstart

The project was called Kind of Bloop. An 8-bit tribute to the Miles Davis masterpiece “Kind of Blue”. Yes, the same sound you remember from first-generation Nintendo games.

Re-imagining “Kind of Blue” was an idea Andy Baio always dreamed about. Baio is a journalist, programmer, and also the CTO of Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects.
» Read more

2 CommentsPosted 15 Jan 2010 by Jonathan Opp

Open source, automotive manufacturing & obscurity

I'm very puzzled by the recent blog by Brian Prentice of Gartner.   Comparing just-in-time manufacturing to open source software?   Perhaps Brian is thinking of open source components like Apache Tomcat, which is often nestled inside of proprietary software solutions.  But comparing an automobile which essentially remains unchanged after manufacturing to a software product that » Read more

1 CommentPosted 14 Jan 2010 by Tom Erickson

An interview with Dr. Tony O'Driscoll of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (part I)

In the last few years, we've seen a proliferation of “open” business books like Wikinomics and The Starfish and the Spider. When every management bestseller is piled high on the clearance table a few years after its debut, it's hard not to wonder if ideas like open innovation, transparency, and meritocracy are just the latest business trends in a series of soon-retired ideas. Is “the open source way” made to stick? » Read more

1 CommentPosted 13 Jan 2010 by Rebecca Fernandez (Red Hat)

Video: Kaltura offers open source platform for video editing

This past summer at the first annual Open Video Conference, there was a lot of buzz surrounding Kaltura, a software that enables people to edit, host and publish their own videos, as well as make use of re-mixable Creative Commons content. We had an opportunity to sit down with Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura's CEO, at the event and discuss why the web needs an open source video platform so badly. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 7 Jan 2010 by Jesse Paddock (Red Hat)

Open Thread Thursday | Business : What's the one thing every company could do today to encourage a culture of collaboration?

Every Thursday we'll pose an open question in one or more channels on opensource.com. Today we start with the business channel. Our first question: What's one thing every company--no matter what size or industry--could do to encourage a culture of collaboration? » Read more

6 CommentsPosted 17 Dec 2009 by Jonathan Opp

Is open source a business "megatrend"?

I recently attended a session of the Megatrends in Business speaker series hosted by UNC Executive Development and the MBA for Executives Programs at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. The session I attended was entitled The Trends and Paradoxes of Business Strategy with a presentation delivered by Dr. Albert H. Segars, Faculty Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise, RBC Bank Distinguished Professor and Chair of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Dr. Segars was previewing a Harvard Business Review article that he co-authored with fellow Kenan-Flagler professor Dan Cable to be published in Spring 2010. I found the presentation to be extremely engaging and relevant, with particular relevance to the ideals of the open source way and the megatrends that they represent.

» Read more

7 CommentsPosted 16 Dec 2009 by John Adams (Red Hat)