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07/19/2000,
8:45am
to 10:15am
in Serra I & II
Presented by Andy Hertzfeld
The personal computer revolution was initially driven by enthusiasts, propelled by their idealism and passion . My talk will compare the early days of the personal computer industry with the current situation of the open source movement. It will focus on my experiences at Apple, describing some of the key people at Apple and how their personalities worked their way into their products, especially dwelling on the development of the Macintosh computer. The talk will discuss the structural problems that ensnared the personal computer industry in the 1980s and articulate how the open source movement can help to resolve them. Finally, it will look at the challenges that lie ahead for the open source movement, emphasizing the crucial issue of usability, discussing what the community can do to make open source software easier to use for mainstream users.
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07/19/2000,
10:45am
to 12:15pm
in San Carlos IV
Presented by Russell C. Pavlicek
The open source movement seems to defy logic at times. We'll explore the seemingly "insane" age of computing in which people build high-quality software for the love of it and then give it away. Rather than focus on details like licensing and software toolkits, we'll try to deliver a basic framework or "rules of engagement" for life in the Insane Asylum. We'll talk about:
- Why the open source movement can't be ignored.
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Why it's critical to understand the basic principles of geek culture.
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Why lying is unforgivable in the open source community.
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Why the open source community is self-correcting in more than just code.
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Why the community tolerates some degree of rudeness.
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Why publicly admitting errors is critical to your success.
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Why using some standard types of business communication can leave you stunned and shunned.
Presented by Richard P. Gabriel, Ron Goldman
Source licenses are the gates through which individuals pass on their way to
forming communities. The key property of a community is how it self-organizes
around a shared purpose to move the code forward, and the key to understanding
how this happens comes from sources all concerned in one way or another with
non-hierarchical, non-command-and-control organizations.
We'll look at the theory behind the creation of the Jini Community and what we
did to create the community over the course of a year. Find out how, within the
constraints of a large company, we used ideas on Chaords, complexity science,
pattern languages, political science, history, the hacker ethic, the software
patterns community, literary theory, cultural anthropology, and postmodernism to
create a self-organizing, self-governing software development community of some
40,000 individuals, schools, and companies.
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07/19/2000,
1:30pm
to 3:00pm
in San Carlos IV
Presented by Eric Raymond
Learn the basics of how to be an effective advocate for open source. We'll look at common advocacy mistakes and how to avoid them, how to speak the other guy's language, media manipulation, and how to pitch to CEOs.
Presented by David L. Sifry
Discover how to evangelize open source into large enterprises and how to highlight the advantages of open source from both technical and business perspectives. We'll illustrate this technique with examples from the 'real world,' highlighting the process as it applies to companies such as Dell, Wells Fargo, IBM, and others.
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07/19/2000,
3:30pm
to 5:00pm
in San Carlos IV
Presented by David Weis
Perfection Learning Corporation's e-commerce system has processed hundreds of orders with real-time credit card processing using entirely open source software, plus Oracle. The installation, integration, and customization took four weeks; the total cost of $30,000 was evenly split between the Web/database server, the licensing and support for Oracle, and the developer time. Learn how, by combining an open source operating system such as Linux with the ACS, AOLserver, and Oracle, you can deploy an e-commerce solution in a fraction of the time it would take to write your own or integrate commercial software with your business.
Presented by Chad Dickerson
In early 1999, Salon.com, an Internet media company founded in November 1995, adopted Linux as its enterprise server OS and Apache as its enterprise Web server, then went public two months later. Not coincidentally, the rapid, successful, and ultimately scalable growth of the company closely followed its broad adoption of open source technologies. We'll explore how, in a media world dominated by mega-mergers like AOL/Time Warner, open source technology plays a critical role in helping a smaller media outlet like Salon.com produce and distribute news and information to a global audience at a reasonable cost. These concepts apply not just to media companies, but more generally to any business attempting to compete with larger, more entrenched companies.
Presented by Paul Everitt
We'll look at a real-world business model for open source software businesses. Within a month of investing, the first-round VC convinced Digital Creations to release their application server as open source. What business strategies supported this? What replaces classic intellectual property as the strategic asset? How did Digital Creations recast its business model for success? This dynamic presentation mixes humor, real-world experience, and audience participation to zero in on the business of open source.
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07/20/2000,
8:45am
to 10:15am
in Serra I & II
Presented by Tim O'Reilly
Presented by Gregory Benford
In a unique and riveting Keynote, well known 'hard' science fiction author and physicist Gregory Benford asks the question "Where will cheap chips and servile software take us in a few decades? Building on his experience in constructing devices designed to communicate meaningfully across hundreds of decades (he was part of the team that developed markers for U.S. nuclear waste sites that must last 10,000 years) with his knowledge of technology, Benford looks at the future in terms of fundamental cultural shifts and what they mean. Our future digitized culture will not necessarily share our assumptions or visions. That future will enjoy an ever-attentive urban landscape, one tuned at every turn by ingratiating machines. Products will fare well if they can anticipate how well that culture will accept fine shadings of machine obedience and intrusion into personal lives. How comfy will we get before we object? Much depends upon how we see ourselves.
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07/20/2000,
10:45am
to 12:15pm
in San Carlos IV
Presented by Dick Hardt
As more companies become involved in the OSS space and valuations skyrocket, the line between community and business becomes increasingly blurred. How do we ensure that the merits and ideals of open source are not co-opted by corporations, yet still allow for commercial enterprise benefits?. Like a church, the community sets the values for software creation and evolution based on an open development model with everyone contributing. And like a state that gives security to its people, companies provide quality assurance, packaging and services, stability, and ease of use for applying the software to real-world business solutions. As the two groups perform very different and yet complimentary functions, a merging would undermine the very elements that allow both to flourish. The separation of church and state is essential for OSS to retain the edge over proprietary software and remain THE software backbone of the Internet.
Presented by Jayson Minard
Throughout its history, open source development has relied, for the successful completion of projects, on loosely coupled technologies. While the end result of these development projects has been successful, the process has often been arduous and not easily adapted by new groups. How much more successful--and attractive to new and corporate developers--might the open source development model be if the underlying infrastructure were strengthened with integrated technology? Using three generic open source projects, we'll explore where and how the current open source development infrastructure can be improved, and consider an improved model for open source development infrastructure.
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07/20/2000,
1:30pm
to 3:00pm
in San Carlos IV
Presented by Brian Behlendorf
Leading an open source effort can bring tremendous benefit to an organization. By integrating and coordinating internal and external development in an open way, businesses can take leadership positions in projects that significantly reach beyond the organization's typical areas of influence. One of the keys to a successful open source project is to provide a meaningful environment for the dynamics of the project to take place. The main focus of this environment is two fold - encouraging active participation and providing the infrastructure needed for development and intra-project communication. A developer centric environment is needed for an open source project to nest, create community and develop reach.
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07/20/2000,
3:30pm
to 5:00pm
in San Carlos IV
Presented by James Barry
If you have a great idea for a new open source project, where can you find the money to make it happen? As a number of recent start-ups have shown, there are resources in the traditional venture capital community to fund Open Source projects. There are also not so well-know funding sources ranging from contract development to a 'skunk works'. This panel discussion will look at all the funding options you have as described by people who have been there.
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