Interesting

This book boils down to one reality, no matter how smart, creative, and innovative your organization seems to be, there will be always smarter, more creative and innovative individuals who are not part of your organization. If you share the same point of view you may also ask yourself how would an organization then take advantage of those outside, individuals who could bring such a huge value. Guess what... Open source allows you to bring them in, and have access to more innovation by building a creative community that reaches a way beyond the barriers of classical business. Both authors argue that the “ Key is developing a web-driven community where new types of collaboration and creativity can flourish”. Ron Goldman and Richard Gabriel share with us lessons learned from their own experiences with open source, as well as those from other well-known projects such as Linux, Apache, and Mozilla.

Reading this book was much more a mean to reinforce some of the conception I already had about Open source at large, it has however added to me a better appreciation of how all of this could work in a business environment. I find this book interesting to every body, no matte if you are a software oriented person or not, if you know open source or not. To me this book succeeded in combining theory about the Open source revolution and the reality inside corporation.

Social Intelligence

Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman is the latest book I have had the pleasure to read. I came across this interesting "ouvrage" while trying to know more about Emotional Intelligence, in fact Daniel Goleman published a book entitled "Emotional Intelligence"in 1995, followed by "Working with Emotional Intelligence" in 1998.

At first I was motivated by understanding the forces and rules governing the unspoken relationship between people, especially in a business context , at work and with clients. I was amazed to learn how our bodies were able to send loads of messages to other people, without saying a word, I knew that we all have a tendency to have a first judgment toward a person as soon as we met or see her. Those judgments are in majority the reflection of our culture and perception of the world, this is why it can never hold absolute truth since culture is related to social environment, time and personal history, hence limited. What I did not know is the power of emotions and how they vehicle so much and can speak by themselves, I now understand better what Charisma means, or how I sometimes have positive feelings toward a person without exchanging a word. I came to another conviction, we know very few about how powerful a brain is. I also understand know how some people are able to sale about anything with limited efforts or at least what seems to me as limited. The biology of the Brian has a fundamental role . One may say " Of course it does ", yes, but by try to understand more about how it works.

In this book Goleman reveals that the latest findings in biology and brain science, as per his writing it all boils down to one fact "we are wired to connect." In other words our daily relationships and interactions with people impact and shape every aspect of our minds and bodies. Goleman uncovers what he calls the "neural ballet" which by we dance with others signals , this ballet shows that we are in fact designed for sociability.

Good relationships are similar to vitamins and bad one can destroy a person.The interesting thing as per Goleman is that emotions are contagious, being with an optimistic person impacts our biological systems from the heart to our immune cells positively.

We are designed to have a natural affinity for empathy, cooperation, and altruism and can nurture these life-enriching capacities in ourselves and others. Yet this is far to be the reality, we live in our own private worlds of iPods, Walkmans, Internet and cell phones, Goleman qualify this social corrosion as "technocreep,"

Within the science of human relationships framework, Goleman covers such subjects as the social intelligence in infants and spindle cells in the brain; the importance of resilience in children who are able to amazingly cope with stress and challenges; the neuroanatomy of a smile; our capacity for "mind sight"; the dark side of social intelligence (narcissism to psychopathy); the healthy consequences of being a people person; and the value in the workplace of socially conscious leaders.

One the chapter I very much liked "From Them To Us." A chapter full of suggestions for bridging the gap when empathy is extinguished and altruistic impulses are closed off. Goleman concludes that positive things can happen in a world where the social brain acts as "a built in guidance system for charity, good works, and compassionate acts." In other words, our world can change for all of us, if we consciously and pro actively choose to be a better social being.

This is a big one !!..Red Hat Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire JBoss Inc.

Let me tell you... this move will have a massive impact on the Open Source offering.. I anticipate Red Hat shares to go up to USD32..
So the good news is that Red Hat announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire JBoss Inc.
What does this mean?
Red Hat and JBoss have signed a definitive agreement whereby Red Hat will acquire JBoss. The acquisition will join together two of the leading open source vendors to create the defining Open Source development and deployment Platform for the Enterprise. Together, the companies will focus on providing an end-to-end open source solution for the next IT generation and application architectures, including SOA. This will accelerate the adoption of open source, building a vibrant ecosystem, and, most importantly, delivering low cost, high value solutions for the customer.

What is the rationale behind Red Hat acquiring JBoss?
Red Hat has built a successful and profitable business, delivering value to customers by helping them unlock the value of open source (it has been rated #1 in value, CIO Insight for the last 2 years). Through a unique subscription model, Red Hat has helped customers shift from closed, proprietary systems to open, standards-based systems. The migration from Unix-to-Linux has helped customers lower their deployment costs, while giving them new flexibility to scale their IT infrastructures in new and different ways.

Yet the promise and possibilities of open source go beyond just deployment. Open source has the possibility to alter the entire cycle of IT projects, from development to testing and certification and into deployment. Since IT infrastructures become more complex and loosely coupled (with web services and service-oriented architectures), and because development teams become more global and distributed, the innovation and transparency of open source software and, the principles by which open communities grow, are creating new sources of economic value for forward-thinking IT organizations.

In simple words Red Hat is seeking to redefine the technology landscape by helping unlock the value of open source and open communities for customers.

This is the way to go baby ...
Very smart move

From eWEEK.COM

Why Pay for a Database?

Dear all, I would have loved to have your comments on my blog but if
you guys would like to do so via Dubailug, bet it let every body share
the benefit ...

I was reading in an article that Microsoft's Carol Dullmeyer, senior
product manager for SQL Server said : "Customers tell us that they
look beyond the initial purchase cost and evaluate items such as
maintenance, support, completeness of functionality, and consistent
management-tool environment,"... If I would read this with my twisted
Linux mind, it would mean that Open source Databases will not be
addressing the the client's concerns...

WHAT DO YOU THINK ?

Some facts:
Despite the attractive prices that are drawing more CIOs to
open-source applications such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, traditional
software from Insight vendors have not exactly thrown in the towel yet.
Some,including big names like Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM -- are
fighting back by releasing free, or scaled-down their fully featured
database products..

Well of course the idea behind it is not not be Open source but rather
try to get the customers to upgrade later one.

when I talk to my client I always have this question:
- Does it make good business sense to pay for a commercial database
when stable open-source versions exists?

The answer is of course " it does not".

The market says the same, MySQL, claims eight million installations
for clients like Yahoo, Ticketmaster, and craigslist.org.

PostgreSQL on the other hand has been taking big names such as Lucent
Technologies, which I hear has recently switched from Oracle !!!!!!!!!!!.

Over all most of my Open source friends see the combination of low or
no cost with ever-improving product performance the main reason behind
those wonderful shifts.


And by the way Microsoft's Dullmeyer argued, that open-source
databases often are big on promises but short on delivery.

What do you guys think?
Thanks;)

Torvalds Says No to GPL 3 for Linux

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) regards digital-rights management (DRM) systems as imposing unnecessary restrictions on software users. "As a campaign to limit users' rights, the adoption of DRM is fundamentally at odds with the spirit of the free software movement," the FSF wrote in a document about the new GPL draft. "Our aim is, and must be, the abolition of DRM as a social practice."

Linus Torvalds, the developer of the Linux kernel, has publicly stated his opposition to the digital-rights management (DRM) provisions that have been proposed for the new version of the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL is used by many open-source software developers.

"Conversion isn't going to happen," Torvalds wrote. "I don't think the GPL v3 conversion is going to happen for the kernel, since I personally don't want to convert any of my code."

How to submit a change to the Linux Kernel

For a person or company who wishes to submit a change to the Linux
kernel.
SECTION 1 - CREATING AND SENDING YOUR CHANGE
SECTION 2 - HINTS, TIPS, AND TRICKS
Thanks to Jeff Garzik

USPTO Revamps Open-Source Patent Process

Some interesting developments!!

Diane Peters, general counsel for OSDL, said she believed that the combined efforts of the open-source community and government would lead to a reduction in the number of legal threats to open-source developers and businesses.

The Patent Office officials met with the open-source community and several universities last month to discuss specific software patent quality issues. The main focus of the meeting was to create a better process for acquiring "the best prior art references" for the initial examination process.

A three steps program has been put in place:
1- The open patent review program will permit anyone to submit search criteria and to opt in to receive e-mailed updates with links to newly published patent applications. The goal, according to IBM, is to "establish an open collaborative community review within the patenting process to improve the quality of patent examination."

2- A second initiative will rely on OSDL, IBM, Red Hat, Novell, and VA Software's SourceForge.net to develop a system that will store source code in an electronically searchable format.


3- The Patent Quality Index, under the direction of Professor R. Polk Wagner of the University of Pennsylvania, will create a unified, numeric index through which the quality of patents and patent applications can be assessed.