An InterActive Forum

While most conferences simply dump data on its participants, perhaps generating a few ideas that quickly fade once they return to their daily lives, this conference was designed to stimulate action. By bringing together a variety of experts in the open source debates to the discussion table in an environment that encouraged frank interaction and cooperation between vendors and consumers, this conference strived to expand the thinking process of decision makers around software choices and present viable solutions to open source and software challenges. Attendance was limited to provide participants with ample opportunities to exchange ideas with each other and conference speakers.

Conference topics

The conference was divided into four sessions. These sessions began with brief presentations by each of the session speakers. An interactive panel followed which encouraged high participation by the audience.

• Business Risk and Exposure in Open Source Utilization
• The Open Standards Deficit in Open Source: Problems in IP Management, Stability, and Market Growth
• Implications for Open Source Adoption
• Strengthening Open Source: Consideration of Alternative Solutions

Conference Schedule

Conference participants were welcome to bring their spouses and partners to both of the receptions and the dinner.

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Detailed Conference Topics

Business Risk and Exposure in Open Source Utilization
In a business environment where companies have experienced costly data isolation due to vendors exiting the market, it has become imperative for customers to have solutions for software deployment and information management that maximize utility, provide flexibility, and manage exposure. While many companies are exploring open source as a viable way to manage this situation and maximize their software utility, the recent rash of lawsuits is tempering their enthusiasm. This session explored the challenges facing open source today from diverse viewpoints.

The Open Standards Deficit in Open Source: Problems in IP Management, Stability, and Market Growth
Standardization—long honored as an effective way to drive down costs and mitigate risks—offers an effective mechanism for addressing concerns impacting open source and for propelling the industry forward. While the efforts of the Free Standards Group in launching the Linux Standards Base specification is commendable, the lack of a concerted effort to create open standards for all open source software is astounding. This session examined the impact of this standardization deficit on areas that include stability, market viability, and intellectual property rights management.

Implications for Open Source Adoption
Open source adoption is now growing at a rate that is grabbing the attention of even its harshest critics. Taking into account the challenges to open source identified in earlier sessions, this session looked at their impact on open source adoption today and implications for the future. Will it continue its expansion from the web to the desktop to the data center and beyond? How will the issues facing open source impact adoption by different types of users? What effects will these challenges have worldwide? Will user adoption methods and practices change as a result?

Strengthening Open Source: Consideration of Alternative Solutions
What do experts from the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, open source, and customer side recommend for resolving open source challenges? More importantly, what do the conference participants have to say on this topic? Designed to discuss alternative solutions to the open source challenges identified in the previous sessions, this session generated ideas that may help adopters and innovators alike to maximize their open source and software investments while facilitating the overall growth of the open source industry.