Forrester's Michael Goulde led off with a presentation based on his recent research on open source adoption trends in the enterprise. He focused on some interesting findings, namely, that enterprises value not just the fact that the source code is available and open, but that they can work with the vendors and communities in an open, collaborative peer-to-peer fashion. Open-ness goes beyond code - Most important is the ability to have an ongoing business collaboration.

Then, after my usual overview of OSA activities, Anthony Gold (GM of Unisys' open source business) gave a great presentation on how the spirit of collaboration is changing the way businesses operate. In big complex projects like stock exchanges, gold mining and federal government systems, collaboration across departments and even outside the organization resulted in innovations and profits that otherwise wouldn't have been realized.

Discussion amongst attendees was active. Vanguard's Sam D'Amore runs an "innovation lab" which works cross-department to innovate better integrated services on the Vanguard website. Since Vanguard doesn't have "brick-and-morter" outlets and runs its entire business electronically, it is critical for Vanguard to stay on the cutting edge of electronic services. A daunting task, but made possible through collaboration. This team benefits from the best and brightest ideas across the company and even from customers and partners.

Sunoco's IT Director, Ken Fulmer, also offered great input on interoperability: A key challenge for the energy industry is finding CRM, supply chain, and related applications that understand the process engineering challenges of moving oil and gas through pipelines. These aren't discrete goods, but flow in real-time, expand/contract with temperature, and so forth. The state-of-the-art of managing this is constantly moving forward, with complex algorithms always changing and having to be embedded in their business applications in various ways. Despite years and billions of investment from the likes of SAP, they still haven't gotten it right. That's why they're turning to open source. Access to code makes changing and refactoring easier, but it also makes it easier for people outside the given department to participate and offer their ideas. What's needed, however, is best practices for managing application integration at the appropriate level of granularity. Plugging CRM and ERP systems together is an easily solvable problem, with standards and integration products galore. But how about replacing a fluid dynamics engine within a given system? No top-down standard exists, but bottom-up grassroots innovation is addressing this.

We closed with a little real-time experiment to prove that collaboration can yield better results:

Take two coffee cups and three knives. Place the coffee cups on the table, about 1.5 knife-lengths apart. Challenge: Build a bridge with the knives between the two cups, without any touching the table, such that one can place a third cup safely on top of the bridge.

First, individuals attempted on their own. Nobody could figure it out. Then, we got three people to work on it together. They figured it out in about three minutes, playing off each other's ideas, experimenting with different knife positions. Want to see what the solution looks like? Scroll to the bottom.

Of course, this may seem like a contrived example, but it demonstrates an important point. Collaboration and open-ness operate in subtle and unpredictable ways. One person comes up with an interesting idea, and while it doesn't solve the problem, it will spark an idea in somebody else's mind, getting you closer to the goal. You can't control or predict how you'll get there (which the proprietary mindset would have us believe). Innovation is emergent, not deterministic. The best you can do is facilitate it, with the right culture, tools and operating environment that encourages open communication and collaboration. This is true in software, in business, in the public sector, and, well, balancing cups. We've seen it over and over again in various categories of software, and are now starting to see it in the world of business.


Our next customer forum will be in Boston, November 29th, the day after and within walking distance of the 451 Group client event that week. The 451 Group's Raven Zachary will present his recent research on open source adoption in the small to medium enterprise. If you're in town for the 451 Group event, stick around an extra half day to hear more, and for the opportunity to sound off on the successes and challenges you're experiencing with open solutions.

As promised, here are pictures of the solution to the cup-and-knife problem. Don't try this at home! Oh, heck, go ahead and try this at home. But please use butter knives!


And finally, here we are, collaboratively helping Michael Goulde navigate Google Maps so he can find his way back to the train station. Of course, he made it in time.