OSBC: What Open Source Can Learn from Microsoft and the Proprietary World

Got a decent seat for this one, so am going to attempt a pseudo live blog. Panel: Stephen Walli (moderator), Jean Barmash (Alfresco), Neelan Choksi (SpringSource), Sam Ramji (Microsoft) and Jim Zemlin (Linux Foundation).

* Microsoft has more community around it than some in the Open Source community realize or give it credit for. –jean
* Need to learn from the Microsoft ISV “designed for Windows” program. LSB is a start. MSDN is also a good model. –jim
* Need more consistency in user experience. –sam
* Need better developer marketing in concert with traditional marketing. –neelan

* Products that solve real world problems create community really quickly.
* A community is as defined by the people it does not or cannot include as much as who is included. Proprietary models tend to have more defined rules as to who can and can not participate – should Open Source? –r0ml
* 96% of the $51B of Microsoft revenue last year came indirectly. –sam (this should underscore how important it is for us to get OEM’s and ISV’s involved)
* We need someone to pull a Ballmer-like monkeyboy dance. –andy
* What is Open Source doing to make IT easier for the non-IT savvy people? –matt

Note: not nearly as rowdy as I’d have anticipated.

–jeremy