Free/Open Source Software

You don't need a new website. You need to make your current website more effective! How can you do that? There is no single answer -- websites are part of a larger system, and you need to consider many different aspects to make your site effective. We've been making websites since the start of the web, and know what makes them work -- as well as not work. Take what we have learned to make your site better!

Custom development licensing models

There are basically 3 models for getting web applications built:

Proprietary platform
Custom code
Open Source

Ask Freelock

Software to be bug-free, guaranteed?

So here's what I think happened. A bunch of attorneys got really ticked about their computers crashing all the time.

Reinventing Business

We have a fundamental problem with the structure of public companies in our business economy. For too long, public companies have been held accountable to one single standard: its stock price.

A Community-Based Approach to Software

Open Source software is not new to the computer world, but businesses have only recently discovered the advantages of Open Source software. Open Source refers to the open method of software development and free availability of (human readable) source code. Open Source applications are typically built with a collaborative approach among developers and companies. Closed source, proprietary software keeps source code secret and is developed exclusively by employees.

Why Open Source?

The software industry is built upon making enormous products that attempt to do everything for everybody, and charging a lot of money for it. This may be fine for large corporations who have deep enough pockets, but what about the rest of us?

It turns out that intelligent programmers around the world have the same needs for managing email, tracking documents, storing files centrally, and running web servers as the rest of us. And in many countries, economics put most of the software products financially out of reach.

Business Social Networking Geography: Yes Location matters

Esther Schindler wrote a thought-provoking column on CIO.com last week, Business Social Networking Geography: Does It Matter Where My Contacts Are?

Random thoughts on OSCON08

This week I'm at the Open Source Convention in Portland, aka OSCON. First impression, before showing up: it seems all focused on big business. Big ticket price. Lots of enterprise-related topics, and sponsors.

How Open Source support is different

I started writing a response to a discussion in the latest "Linux Link Tech Show" episode, but ended up with something far too long, so I've split it up into 4 posts.

An example of open source support

In my early Linux system administration days, when I was first trying to set up a mail server with spam filtering, I ran across a really puzzling bug in Dspam, the software I was trying to get working.

The unwritten rules of open source support

What's extraordinary about the open source community is that this level of support happens all the time, every day, without charge, in hundreds, thousands of projects out there.

Managing an Open Source project - LugRadio

LugRadio has a very interesting discussion in their current podcast about the role of a community manager, in creating a vibrant community around an open source project.

Information Technology in Business: The big picture

Computers and information systems are essential parts of every business today. Like accounting and legal, every business needs to invest in technology to compete. Technology is both a cost of doing business, and an opportunity to do more business. Most people I talk with recognize the necessity of having a computer, an email address, and a web site, but still look at the upfront cost more than other issues.

After spending some time working with dozens of businesses, I think it's time to take a step back and look at the big picture of technology in business. Let's take a reporter's view of the topic, and ask the basic questions: who, what, where, why, when, and how much?

Subscribe to Free/Open Source Software