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Technology Innovation Management Review January 2012 Open Source Business Welcome to the January 2012 issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review. The editorial theme of this issue is Open Source Business. We invite your comments on the articles in this issue as well as suggestions for future article topics and issue themes. Image licensed under CC BY by John Martinez Pavliga Editorial 3 Chris McPhee and Leslie Hawthorn How Open Source Has Changed the Software Industry: Perspectives from 5 Open Source Entrepreneurs Juho Lindman and Risto Rajala Open Invention Network: A Defensive Patent Pool for Open Source 12 Projects and Businesses Deborah Nicholson A New Way of Measuring Openness: The Open Governance Index 18 Liz Laffan Q&A: What Is the Secret of Red Hat's Success? 25 Ruth Suehle Q&A: What Are the Long-Term Effects of Open Source? 29 Carlo Daffara Author Guidelines 32 www.timreview.ca Technology Innovation Management Review January 2012 Publisher Overview The Technology Innovation Management Review is a monthly publication of the Talent First Network. The Technology Innovation Management Review (TIM Review) provides insights about the issues and emerging ISSN trends relevant to launching and growing technology 1927-0321 businesses. The TIM Review focuses on the theories, strategies, and tools that help early-stage technology Editor-in-Chief companies succeed. Chris McPhee Our readers are looking for practical ideas they can apply Advisory Board within their own organizations. The TIM Review brings Tony Bailetti together diverse viewpoints – from academics, entre- Carleton University, Canada preneurs, companies of all sizes, the public sector, the Peter Carbone third sector, and others – to bridge the gap between Ottawa, Canada theory and practice. In particular, we focus on the topics Leslie Hawthorn of managing innovation, technology entrepreneurship, AppFog, United States economic development, and open source business. Thomas Kunz Carleton University, Canada Upcoming Issues Michael Weiss Carleton University, Canada • February: Entrepreneurship I Guest Editor: Tony Bailetti Review Board • March: Entrepreneurship II Tony Bailetti Guest Editor: Tony Bailetti Carleton University, Canada • April: Social Innovation Peter Carbone Guest Editor: Stephen Huddart Ottawa, Canada • May: Global Business Creation G R Gangadharan Guest Editors: Marko Seppä and Stoyan Tanev IBM, India Steven Muegge We welcome input from readers into upcoming Carleton University, Canada themes. Please visit timreview.ca to suggest themes and Risto Rajala nominate authors and guest editors. Aalto University, Finland Sandra Schillo Contribute Innovation Impact, Canada Stoyan Tanev Contribute to the TIM Review in the following ways: University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Michael Weiss • Read and comment on past articles and blog posts. Carleton University, Canada • Review the upcoming themes and tell us what topics Mika Westerlund you would like to see covered. University of California Berkeley, United States • Consider writing an article for a future issue; see the Blair Winsor Napier University, United Kingdom author guidelines and editorial process for details. • Recommend colleagues as authors or guest editors. © 2007 - 2012 • Give feedback on the website or any other aspect of this Talent First Network publication. www.timreview.ca • Sponsor or advertise in the TIM Review. • Tell a friend or colleague about the TIM Review. Except where otherwise noted, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please contact the Editor if you have any questions or The PDF version is created with comments: timreview.ca/contact Scribus, an open source desktop publishing program. 2 Technology Innovation Management Review January 2012 Editorial: Open Source Business Chris McPhee, Editor-in-Chief Leslie Hawthorn, Guest Editor From the Editor-in-Chief From the Guest Editor It is my pleasure to introduce Leslie Hawthorn, Com- While technologists have long been used to the terms munity Manager for AppFog, as our guest editor for the “free software” and “open source software,” a testa- January 2012 issue of the Technology Innovation ment to the success of these development methodolo- Management Review (TIM Review). The editorial theme gies lies in the emerging application of the term “open of this issue is Open Source Business and this issue fea- source” to a wide variety of sectors. Groups of doctors tures authors from Australia, Finland, Italy, and the in disparate locations who are collaborating to discover United States. cures for malaria describe their approach as “open source” (http://tinyurl.com/7d7oza9). Marcin Jakubkowski’s The theme for the February and March issues will be TED Talk on “Open Source Ecology” – the publication Entrepreneurship, presented by guest editor Tony of plans and schematics to enable anyone to construct Bailetti. We encourage you to suggest themes you the industrial machines required to power a “sustain- would like to see covered in future issues. able civilization with modern comforts” (http://open sourceecology.org/about.php) – has enjoyed more than We hope you enjoy this issue of the TIM Review and 636,000 views (http://tinyurl.com/6dc4bpb). Danielle Gould will share your comments on articles online. Please also eloquently argues that eliminating inefficiencies in our feel free to contact us (timreview.ca/contact) directly with systems of food production and distribution “requires feedback or article submissions. creating incentives to move from closed, proprietary ap- proaches to open ones” (http://tinyurl.com/76haums). With Chris McPhee the application of its high-level concepts to such a dis- Editor-in-Chief parate set of challenges, it is tempting to argue that free/libre open source software (F/LOSS) methodolo- gies have been validated as the superior choice overall, at least in the court of public opinion. However, the ultimate testament to the power of the F/LOSS model remains its application in the business world. F/LOSS continues its surge to prominence as a means for businesses to cut costs, promote innovation, and further engage their customers. In 2011 alone, F/LOSS based businesses saw venture capital invest- ment of more than $466M USD, a 24% increase over such investments in 2009 (http://tinyurl.com/6rqnphs). In one recent industry survey, 25% of respondents repor- ted that 75% of all software used by their organization is F/LOSS (http://tinyurl.com/3sn647f). The F/LOSS software stack acts as the key component in the emerging, though increasingly prominent, world of cloud comput- ing, allowing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors to provide services that increase their custom- ers’ revenue by decreasing time to deployment, hard- ware costs, hosting costs, etc. With all the activity – and, in some cases, pure hype – surrounding F/LOSS and the application of its prin- ciples, it can be easy to assume that open source and www.timreview.ca 3 Technology Innovation Management Review January 2012 Editorial: Open Source Business Chris McPhee and Leslie Hawthorn open innovation models “just work” and carry on from Ruth Suehle, writer and editor for opensource.com and there. As with all things, the narrative is much more nu- former editor of Red Hat Magazine, examines Red Hat’s anced. Open business models have proved incredibly formula for success as a pure-play open source busi- effectively, but the overall landscape is much more ness on track to earn $1B in annual revenue. She gives complex than simply reducing the problem space to us a glimpse into the profound impact F/LOSS method- “open = good.” ologies have on each aspect of Red Hat’s offerings, from its software to its community outreach initiatives and In this issue of the TIM Review, we present a variety of its promulgation of “the open source way” as a means examinations of the open business model, from legal to promote more widespread innovation across all sec- and governance issues to the long-term implications of tors. the F/LOSS model for businesses, both those that are a pure F/LOSS play to those businesses who choose to Carlo Daffara, Head of Research at Conecta, discusses use F/LOSS where they had been traditionally averse to the long-term effects of F/LOSS on the software in- it. dustry, arguing that the interconnectedness of software projects produced by the massive increased use of Juho Lindman, Assistant Professor in the Hanken F/LOSS code propels innovation, collaboration, and School of Economics, and Risto Rajala, Director of Re- profit in profound ways that we are only now beginning search at Aalto University, examine the impact that to fully understand. F/LOSS models have had on entrepreneurship and the software industry as a whole. Their research dives into Leslie Hawthorn the critical issues facing F/LOSS businesses and the cor- Guest Editor responding benefits achieved by those players who ef- fectively approach these challenges. About the Authors Deborah Nicholson, Community Outreach Director for the Open Innovation Network, presents the barriers to Chris McPhee is Editor-in-Chief of the Technology open innovation raised by software patents and their Innovation Management Review and is in the Tech- use by non-practicing entities – less charitably known nology Innovation Management program at Car- as “patent trolls” – to produce profits purely through lit- leton University in Ottawa. Chris received his BScH igation. She provides an overview of