Is Open Source testing on it’s way to becoming a little bit trendy? I think it is not unreasonable to assume that it might eventually. Then again, in some ways Open Source has been on the upswing to ‘trendy’ for quite some time now.

Last week I spent two very worthwhile days in San Francisco at the Open Source Business Conference. Once again Matt Asay and friends put on a stellar conference. The speakers Matt was able to assemble were impressive and the halls were filled with many of the best thinkers on OSS business issues (in the U.S.). As a platinum sponsor of the show, I was more than pleased with the outcome.

If I had to pick one thing that jumped out at me during the conference, it is the fact that the ideology of open source has persisted and yet has diverged from the reality of how OSS is being used as a business strategy.

Ideology is important. Reaching for a social and business system that is inherently more fair and productive is what we should be doing. Enabling consumers to maximize their choice and vendors to compete based on the merits of their technologies is what should be driving the industry forward. And to an extent, this is what has made OSS so compelling – the potential for delivering on these promises.

Yet these compelling ideas are tied to a software development model. If it were able to stop there – and not layer on business strategy, operational realities, or the implications of existing intellectual property regimes - OSS would probably do a better job of meeting those goals. [Read the rest]