competitive

Microsoft is "committed to openness," snickers its general counsel

Wow. Microsoft is nothing if not brazen. When you think of Microsoft you normally don't think of these words, at least not together, yet these words came from Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, in response to Google's complaint that a Microsoft and Yahoo! tie up would be bad for the Internet:

Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet.

Microsoft? Committed to openness? Microsoft has been committed to destroying openness over the years, and Brad Smith has played an integral role in that strategy, defying the US Justice Department and the world's consumer. I think highly of Brad, but I find this guile to be galling in the extreme.

Google is exactly right in calling out Microsoft's cheek:… Read more

'Re-Mission' is a video game with a vital purpose

At first glance, Re-Mission comes across as a stylishly produced, anime-influenced video game. But the targets in question are cancer cells, which the character Roxxi the nanobot blasts with the Chemoblaster, the Radiation Gun, and the Antibiotic Rocket.

Re-Mission is specifically designed as a health improvement intervention for teens and young adults who have cancer. Game producers at HopeLab start with a desired health outcome, and then reverse engineer a game that encourages positive behaviors, adding motivation and fun into something as scary as a kid's battle against cancer.

HopeLab Vice President Ellen LaPointe spoke at the Sandbox Summit … Read more

MySQL under siege and the likely need to "roll your own" open source

First it was Oracle buying Innobase (though Oracle has so far played fair). Now it's IBM buying Solid Information Technology. Given much of the proprietary world's public attitude toward open source ("Open source a threat? What's open source?), it's surprising that IBM would even bother to hedge its bets against MySQL.

After all, who's afraid of little MySQL? I mean, who besides everyone with a database business that depends on lock-in, overpriced licenses, and 20th Century software? Matthew Aslett doesn't think this was targeted at MySQL, and he's likely right. But it impacts MySQL all the same, as the New York Times writes:

The IBM acquisition may be seen as a setback for MySQL, since it marks the loss of independence of another company that makes a high-performance transaction engine for MySQL's database....… Read more

Distinguishing losers from winners

A thought occurred to me this morning that resonates true. Winners (in a market) spend their time thinking about customers, whereas losers spend their time thinking about the winners (i.e., the competition).

This shows up in their marketing messages, their sales pitches, etc. If you're an IT buyer, you should be able to figure out immediately whether your would-be vendor is leading or following the market. Losers waste time fetishing the competition with feature comparisons and such. As an IT buyer, you're not buying a comparison. You're buying a solution to a pressing business problem. That'… Read more

European carriers fighting to unlock the iPhone

The Guardian is reporting that Vodafone is planning to offer an unlocked iPhone in Germany, while Orange (in France) is planning to sell an unlocked version, as French law requires. Vodafone's actions are particularly interesting....

After all, it's T-Mobile that got the exclusive deal with Apple, but Vodafone challenged the deal in a Hamburg court, and The Guardian reports that T-Mobile is now considering selling an unlocked version of the iPhone for a higher price (presumably to appease the court).

Fabrizio may be right: it may be a plot on Vodafone's part to scuttle T-Mobile Germany's … Read more

Selling innovation and value, not cost

Josefl Assad offers a poignantly accurate analysis of current open-source sales efforts ("The Failure of Open Source Business Advocacy"). In short, we're selling the wrong value proposition. Open source sells itself on price quite often, but its long-range future depends on selling an entirely different value proposition: value and innovation.

The consistent and often exclusive focus on cost of acquisition as a competitive advantage is a key factor leading into unsustainable and sub-optimal deployment of open source. It is often the IT budget rather than the longer range IT strategy which provides an entry point for free software in the enterprise. The distinction is crucial: an annual budget at best provides room for tactical initiative, such as cost reduction or intermediate architectural adjustment. The core values defining how technology can serve the enterprise are rarely examined on a 12 month horizon, and it is arguable that the real business advantage to be gained from free software can only be realized through the adoption of the culture surrounding free software technology. For most enterprises, this is a long range proposition.… Read more

Defining competition within open-source companies

In talking with my PR firm (Page One) the other day, it struck me that many open-source companies fritter away far too much attention and time competing with...themselves. That is, they talk about how they're better than another open-source company or project.

Why? This isn't about keeping the faith with "the family," but rather about market realities: to beat a fellow open-source company or project is like winning the third-grade's sack race. It might feel good, but it makes no appreciable difference on the world. Beating a string of underdogs won't matter one iota compared to beating the top dogs.

Hyperic's target is the Big Four of IT management, not the Little Four. MuleSource should be focused on Tibco, not ServiceMix. SugarCRM is after Siebel and Salesforce.com, not vTiger. OpenBravo offers a new approach to ERP that SAP and Oracle can't easily replicate - it should not be focused on Compiere, Adempiere, or other open-source ERP projects.

To "win" against such competition is to lose the larger market battles, if that's all a company does.… Read more

Even when open source loses, customers win

In talking with some fellow open sourcerors the other day, a comment resonated with me:

Even when we lose a deal, we set a new bar on pricing and value. That's money out of our competitors' pockets, and a raised bar on customer expectations.

Absolutely true. If I lose a deal, I can guarantee that it wipes out $500K - $1.5M from my proprietary competition's top line even if they win the deal. Even when I lose, in other words, the customer wins. What's not to love?

Of course, there are many benefits to open source … Read more

Prof says global warming is dangerous to your freedom

Nobody's going to like this one. Liberals will feel attacked. Libertarians will nod glumly. Conservatives will feel they're being blamed for something that hasn't happened. And those who intend to ignore climate change will continue to accuse others of a conspiracy.

Peter Wells, a researcher in Cardiff, England, has published an article warning that climate change could lead to a global, militaristic totalitarian state. Here's where you can find the article, but it will cost money to see it all. So, a brief summary: Climate change will create severe challenges to numerous nations. It may prove … Read more

World Cyber Games U.S. Open kicks off in New York City

Do you think you're good at video games? Compared to these guys, you probably aren't.

The World Cyber Games is the world's largest professional gaming league, and it's kicking off its U.S. Open tournament series this weekend in New York. Pros from all across gamerdom are competing in this weekend's tournament for over $20,000 in cash and prices and a berth in the USA National Final tournament. Among the competitors in the U.S. Open are professional Starcraft gamer "Red_ScorpiO" (Ralph Geunhwa), professional Dead or Alive 4 gamer "Master" (… Read more