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"Where are all the open source billionaires?" Wired asks in its March issue. Wrong question. The right question is "Who will become billionaires because of open source?"
Wired provides an eclectic mix of insight, commentary, and predictions about what's coming down the pike. I always enjoy reading it because it's thought-provoking and stimulating and mostly right. But it got it dead wrong about open source software last month. In its "Wired Business Tends 2008" the magazine's #1 trend is "Open Source Tycoons: The Software that Made Developers Cool can now Make Them Rich." It goes on to discuss the potential for open source software riches and proclaims that big dollars are around the corner for open source entrepreneurs. (I'd provide a link to the article, but the Wired website doesn't seem to have the article, and has an impossibly lame search capability; how well does that square with a self-proclaimed role as the prophet of the digital revolution?)
Notwithstanding the recent acquisitions of several open source companies for significant sums (and I maintain their valuation was based on their strategic importance to the acquirers, not to their real economic value), there aren't going to be any open source billionaires. The whole point of open source is that it deflates the value of software -- that's the definition of commoditization. Open source companies will be good businesses but we will never see the Oracle equivalent in the open source world. Oracle and its brethren made their mark when the potential of computing was opening up and there was a shortage of software available to take advantage of it. Those conditions are now gone, as evinced by the fact that there are several open source alternatives to the Oracle database. The software shortage is over, so the opportunity for huge fortunes from software is over as well.
However, that doesn't mean that open source won't create new billionaires. Because the cost of software has plummeted, new companies are being formed that take advantage of open source to create new offerings -- and these new companies will build enormous fortunes on the back of open source. I refer to this phenomena as "the migration of margin." The enormous margin previously enjoyed by software is going to move to the new products and services made possible by open source software. If you want to see the billionaires of open source, you'll have to look elsewhere. In the next week or two, I'm going to discuss a few of these companies, ones that have leveraged open source to develop products and services that wouldn't be possible in a proprietary software world.
Meanwhile, to Wired: Sorry you got it so wrong, but the fate of a fortune teller is not often kind.
2008 CIO Summit
19th August, 2008 Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney Developed in partnership with CIO Magazine, IDC, INTEP and the CIO Executive Council.
The world of the CIO is extremely complex and diverse. Multiple priorities demand attention and decisions are needed instantly. Individual teams need to be driven towards common goals, and businesses strive to become more mobile, agile and responsive. For CIOs, the challenge never ends.
Every year the CIO Summit identifies what is top of mind for CIOs across Australia and New Zealand, and offers insight for CIO benchmarking and vendor strategic planning alike.
Recent IDC research shows that over 59% of CIO's believe that 'to achieve their business strategies, technology should be used more aggressively than today.'
Join us on August 19th to discover how this is possible with the latest technologies including Virtualisation, Web 2.0, IP Surveillance and Software as a Service (Saas).
Please email Denyse_Robertson@idg.com.au for further information.
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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
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Phishing botnet expands by hacking legit sites 15 May, 2008 08:10:59
Plants SQL injection attack tool on bots, hacks business, education sitesA botnet is now using a SQL-injection attack tool designed to hack legitimate Web sites, a move meant to add more hijacked PCs to its collection, according to a security researcher. - +
Which IT security skills are most important? 14 May, 2008 09:21:43
There are two types of security skills that might be needed in a company: tactical security operations and strategic risk management.I often hear from IT executives that it is hard to recruit and retain "good security people." Many lament the shortage of skills in this area and cannot reconcile the skills offered with the positions that need to be filled. Is there really a shortage of good security people? Or just a mismatch in the skills and the jobs? - +
Icy encryption tool protects laptops from "cold boot" attack, vendor says 14 May, 2008 08:36:43
Vulnerable encryption keys erased by HyBlue's IceLockThe vendor HyBlue says it can prevent the "cold boot" encryption hack discovered by Princeton researchers with a laptop security product announced Tuesday. - +
Great Wall of Australia: Industry cops sanitised Internet 14 May, 2008 16:45:04
Content filtering gets budget go-aheadCommunications Minister Stephen Conroy has pushed ahead with the controversial [[artid:420013177|national content filtering scheme|ISP filtering]] with a $125.8 million budget allocation announced today. - +
Hacker writes rootkit for Cisco's routers 15 May, 2008 07:07:51
A hacker has written rootkit software that works on Cisco's routers.A security researcher has developed malicious rootkit software for Cisco Systems' routers, a development that has placed increasing scrutiny on the routers that carry the majority of the Internet's traffic.
Quantum announces General Availability of Industry's First Solution Designed to Match De-Duplication Functionality to Specific B 16 May, 2008 10:44:00
Hansen Technologies Extends Contract With Tokyo Electric Power Company 16 May, 2008 09:44:00
More Than 140 Higher Education Institutions Worldwide Use RightNow on Demand CRM 15 May, 2008 18:06:00
DST International Names Rob Gould as Director of Business Development and Strategy for Australia 15 May, 2008 15:40:00
WatchGuard Issues 45 Day IT Network Security Reminder for Achieving PCI DSS Compliance 15 May, 2008 11:33:00
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