bob ketner

* Daniel Chalef, “Knowledge Tree
- started in S.Africa
- no dev world cust. Except China
- premium services
- “if you’re releasing under iso approved then you’re os
- pharma
- key trends: saas, community, freemium,

* Ismael Ghamili, Intalio
- cosmo – commercial open source
- users help each other for free version
- no outbound sales or vc
- virtual nuclear weapons testing
- digg type input for new features
- 2/3 leads from google search
- key trends: subscription not perpetual licensing, drives improvement

* Don Brown, Atlassian
- jira, open symphony,
- 20-30m, 9 products, saas
- 1/3 to 2/3 os products
- credit card purshases <$10k
- get code on purchase
- insane licensing and service and consultants drives govt to os
- co. contributes core but “pure” os is not going to be
possible otherwise where’s the business?
- key trends: free

* Chander Kant, Zmanda
- os backup/dev
- inside sales
- 2.0, defense, archiving
- if you compete with your free version then you are os

* moderator Andrew Aitken, Olliance
- what about multiple versions that get created/modified
- “freemium”

[Other namedrops: sugar crm, olpc, ]

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Global Open Source: VC Panel: Where’s the money?

* Kevin Efrusy, Accel
- must be THE company not A company
- great for the developer who works under a boss who “buys
software he learned about in an airline mag” and who could have completed
the project in the time taken for the server req. [Comment: story of
my life]
_ usage talks
- better to measure production heartbeats than downloads or heaven
forbid, feature count
- os fastest to global but another microsoft? It’s questionable
- downloads gameable – downloader is unlikely convert, -not decision
maker
- you have to sell this stuff, you must sell – money doesn’t just flow
through the home page through happy users this is not what happens
- 2 stages: ubiquity then money
- downtime terror drives paying customers
- sox inhibits ipo goals

* Vineet Buch, Blue Run Ventures
- if you don’t control it someone will give it away for free
- new concept that os is rational choice
- devs in Bangalore hit now by US recessipon
- very early stage, dinner napkin stage
- fire sales from direction disagreements
- acq may be better than ipo with couple of recent examples

* John Occhipini, Woodside Fund
- continued thirst for acqs until big co’s are in os
- global base to avoid recession
- recurring revenue stream
- product + service to run it in cloud model
- repeat entrepreneurs get napkin funding easier
- quality inside sales in marketing model
- speed of community important
- legacy proprietaries still need to migrate, this will drive hi$ acqs

* Philippe Cases, Partech
- microsoft WAS rhe low cost provider

* moderator Joe Brockmeyer, Novell

[Namedrops: recession, add-ons]

* See sdforum.org for Mar. 24 2008 for full  paricipants list.

* Sander Ruiter – Dutch Ministry uses os. For interoperability, less
depndent on suppliers, no complex licensing agreements

* Arnaud Le Hors, IBM
- os.now due to internet
-  even including retraining, switching to open office saves 60%, wow
- govt can’t distibute in prop. standards to public
- consider the ROI on linux
- IBM branded open office requested

* Mark Radcliffe, DLA Piper
- even DOD is interested
-  “if you’re writing software you’re infringing patents” so
you need your own pile for defense but file selectively. 15% of patents
are even worthwhile or active

* Tony Wasserman, Carnegie Mellon
- piracy of windows inhibits uptake of linux in dev. world
- open office big w. govts. esp. due to cost
- devices, nokia tablet ex. has 90% os.
- some companies won’t buy anything w/o svc. contract
- bus model: service, premium functions,

* moderator Dirk Riehle SAP
- SAP is leading os projects, linux, eclipse,

[Bob K commentary: what will pirates sell in an os world?]

MySQL
- everyone worked from home
- best way to organize is to not have an office
- business model on subscription or ads not license
- keeping “what works” is just inertia in the market
- Zuckerberg used it because it was free
- commodity hardware- open source- 2.0- SaaS – this is the new terrain
- open source is not a business model
- software patents are harmful
- 50m developers worldwide – who cares how many Ph Ds you hire, harness
the vast group for the speed of evolution
- MySQL employees at 110 airports – all you need is an internet
connection
- 60,000 people show up to the MySQL site daily
- “free” does not mean “free of charge” – just
means it’s free
- those who spend time to save money innovate – those who spend money
to save time pay for the service

- 90% of the features at 10% of the cost
- itls not an “exit” for him because he’s still running it.
The acq. was like IPO only better
-  “never be defensive” is the strategy
- key metrics was sales, downloads, traffic, blog posts, search
results, bug reports