Planet JM

Author: OSEN

  • Next Boston Meetup: July 19 at Acquia

    Next Boston Meetup: July 19 at Acquia

    https://www.meetup.com/OSENMeetup/events/241212309/

     

    Thanks to Acquia and Underscore VC for hosting our next meetup on Wednesday, July 19, at Acquia’s corporate headquarters in downtown Boston!

    Here’s the agenda:

    6pm: Food and drinks are served

    6:30: Evan Klein, Black Duck Software

    Evan is the Manager at Black Duck’s Center for Open Source Research and Innovation and wrote the 2017 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis.

    Black Duck On-Demand performed security audits of more than 1000 commercial applications in 2016. Analysis of the findings confirm the importance of open source in application development, with 96% of the applications scanned utilizing open source. However, it also highlights the persistent challenges organizations face in effectively securing and managing their open source. Black Duck’s Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) reveals that versions of some of the most commonly used components contained high-risk vulnerabilities, and that 67% of the audited applications contained known open source vulnerabilities.

    7pm: David Hurley, Mautic

    The Mautic community believes in giving every person the power to understand, manage, and grow their business or organization. Mautic is focused on helping this belief become a reality by getting powerful marketing automation software into the hands of everyone.

    When David Hurley (@dbhurley) began Mautic he had a big goal. A plan to move horizons, and change the world. He foresaw Mautic as software made by the people and for the people and as such the community became a top priority and integral part. Those people interested in becoming involved in a community with a vision to change the world should consider getting involved in Mautic. People are the priority. Equality is the goal.

    7:30pm (time willing): John Mark Walker, OSEN

    The importance of the community distribution in product development.

  • OpenEBS and CloudByte Talk About Containerized Storage

    OpenEBS and CloudByte Talk About Containerized Storage

    I had the privilege of speaking to Uma Mukkara, COO and co-founder of Cloudbyte, and Kiran Mova, Cloudbyte’s VP of Engineering and self-professed open source hacker. Cloudbyte was in the news yesterday as they announced that Evan Powell, former CEO of Nexenta, has taken the reins as Cloudbyte CEO. They also announced the release of OpenEBS 0.3, which shows a steady march towards tighter integration with container orchestration frameworks, Kubernetes being the first on their radar.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XYx86jAXns&w=560&h=315]

  • Welcome Richard Morrell to OSEN

    Welcome Richard Morrell to OSEN

    I’m pleased as punch to announce that Richard Morrell will also be contributing to the Open Source Entrepreneur Network.

    Richard has been around Open Source since the term was coined and has worked with the likes of Red Hat, Linuxcare, VA Linux and Zimbra since the late 1990s. Founder of the SmoothWall Linux firewall in August 2000 and the commercial entity that took that GPL project to profitability, he has long since proved that Open Source can survive successfully in the global technology marketplace. Until December 2016 he headed up security strategy at Red Hat and now is CTO of Gartner’s global security practice. He has presented a series of podcasts on both Open Source and Security since 2012 which are all available online.

  • Bombshell Report: 200% ROI on Open Source Participation

    Bombshell Report: 200% ROI on Open Source Participation

    From the World Bank Data Blog: in a stunning report from the OpenDRI, an initiative sponsored by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), researchers looked into whether it was possible to quantify the benefit of contributing to and participating in open source communities and found the conservative estimate to be on the order of 200% ROI. This is astounding. We in the open source world have often wondered how, exactly, a business can benefit from participating in upstream open source communities.

    On one hand, I don’t want to overplay the importance of ROI, because there are many tangible and intangible benefits from open source participation, which should not be downplayed. On the other hand, if there’s an appreciable, direct ROI to open source participation, this is something to make some noise about.

    The Data Blog from the World Bank has a nice summary of the research. It discusses this specific report that covers 7 years of development on the GeoNode software project. There’s also a nice primer on open source best practices for those new to the subject matter.

  • Open Source Supply Chain “Full of Bugs”

    Open Source Supply Chain “Full of Bugs”

    From EnterpriseTech: I came across a link today to a news commentary which asserts that open source software is “a supply chain rife with security vulnerabilities and clogged with outdated versions of widely used software components.” I’m often reluctant to give these types of stories too much air time, because they’re often rife with FUD, but there’s a lot of truth here, and it’s something that we need to face up to, especially if we want companies to continue to innovate on open source platforms and build open source products.

    If you read Nadia Eghbal‘s “Roads and Bridges” white paper for the Ford Foundation, you’ll see that crusty, old open source software has been a concern for some time. She proposes that we view software the same as any other core infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. There’s also a collaborate project from the Linux Foundation, the Core Infrastructure Initiative, to attempt to deal with these issues.

    This is not an easy problem to solve, and it hits at the hears of what we want to do at the Open Source Entrepreneur Network, because we want companies to build process around their consumption and contribution of this great open source software and make contingency plans for when it all goes haywire. We want companies to be able to reduce their risk exposure while still benefiting from the innovation happening right now on open source platforms.

  • It’s the Ecosystem, Stupid

    It’s the Ecosystem, Stupid

    I published a bit over at OpenSource.com.

    Read the full article here.

    It’s a plea to look externally and figure out how your technology relates to all that’s happening in the greater ecosystem. There are still way too many companies who suffer from NIH and end up saddled with way too much technical debt. Don’t do that. Take the time and effort to make inroads into all those communities that are making all the new innovations.

     

     

  • Next Cambridge Meetup – IoT and Mobile on June 27

    Next Cambridge Meetup – IoT and Mobile on June 27

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    We’re going back to the CIC this month for our next Cambridge meetup. RSVP at meetup.com/OSENMeetup/

    This month’s topic will be all about Open Source product development in the context of mobile, edge computing, and IoT. We’ll talk about how to deal with patents and compliance, as well as a sober look at the state of security in this space and how to manage risk. And finally, we’ll touch on engineering principles in the cloud native space that allow you to benefit from upstream innovation while still delivering product reliably.

    Agenda

    6 – 6:30 – Meet and greet (and eat and drink)

    6:30 – 7 – Patents and Mobile Computing – Deb Nicholson, Open Invention Network.

    7 – 7:30 – State of Security in IoT and Edge Computing – TBD

    7:30 – 8 – Product Development in Cloud Native, a Defense of the Community Distribution

    Looking forward to seeing everyone!

    RSVP at meetup.com/OSENMeetup/

  • Welcome Swapnil Bhartiya

    Welcome Swapnil Bhartiya

    We’re pleased to announce that Swapnil Bhartiya has been added to the fold of OSEN authors. Swapnil has a distinguished history writing about open source in major publications. We’re honored to have him on board. He brings a wealth of knowledge about open source in the enterprise, IoT, and consumer electronics. Look for his first contributions to appear later this month.

    Want to write for us? Hit the “contact” link and tell us what you’d like to write about.

     

  • Podcast 4: Craig McLuckie, Heptio

    Podcast 4: Craig McLuckie, Heptio

    We had a very enlightening conversation with Craig McLuckie, he of Kubernetes and Heptio fame. We talked about the simplicity of the Heptio model, the crowded field of container orchestration and a bit of Kubernetes history. Click below to hear more!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4NoGkFpyIo&w=560&h=315]

     

  • Toyota First to Market with Automotive Grade Linux Product

    Toyota First to Market with Automotive Grade Linux Product

    For those of us who follow open source business trends and products, we were blessed with a landmark announcement today from Toyota: the 2018 Camry will feature an entertainment system based on Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), the Linux Foundation collaborative project that counts car makers Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan as members.

    This marks the first official in-car infotainment product based on AGL, with others sure to follow. From the announcement:

    AGL is an open source project hosted by The Linux Foundation that is changing the way automotive manufacturers build software.  More than 100 members are working together to develop a common platform that can serve as the de facto industry standard. Sharing an open platform allows for code reuse and a more efficient development process as developers and suppliers can build once and have a product work for multiple OEMs. This ultimately reduces development costs, decreases time-to-market for new products and reduces fragmentation across the industry.

    The Linux Foundation has led the effort to help more industries become collaborative in an effort to become more efficient at product development. The auto industry is a logical choice, because very few people buy a car based on who makes the entertainment system, so why not collaborate on the base functions and innovate on top of that platform?

    I’ll be interested to learn more about Toyota’s product development and how they go about putting together the final version that you’ll see in your car. Expect more on this story soon.