1. OSSG:
Open Source doesn’t always
represent the best value
Janus Boye - jb@jboye.com
London, January 2010

2. Who is Janus Boye?
• Founder of J. Boye – known for vendor-neutral blog,
community of practice and conferences
• 225 members, divided into several groups
• Why community of practice:
• Much to gain from sharing ideas
• No “one correct route”
• Frequent changes in priorities

3. Some of our members
Alfa Laval, Amnesty, Arup, Borealis,
Carlsberg, City of Aarhus, Danfoss,
Danish Agency for Governmental
Management, Elexon, Environment
Agency, European Patent Office, LEGO,
Maersk, Medtronic, Nordea, Odense
University Hospital, Specsavers,
Swarovski, SWIFT, UNHCR, Unilever,
University of Copenhagen, Wienerberger,
WWF

4. Agenda
Confusion
Open source issues
1. Support & Training
2. Risks
3. Requirements
4. Implementation
5. Community
Your opportunity

7. An Open Source of Confusion
True or False?
Open source Commercial / Proprietary
• Low cost • High cost
• Pay for services • Pay for software
• Ease of customisation • Difficult to customise
• Open platforms • Proprietary platforms
• Community support • No community support
• Future proofing • Short-term
• “Try before you buy” • “Buy before you try”

8. Clay Shirky
“The bulk of open source projects fail, and most of
the remaining successes are quite modest. But
does that mean the threat from open systems
generally is overrated and the commercial
software industry can breathe easy? Here the
answer is no. Open source is a profound threat,
not because the open source ecosystem is
outsuccessing commercial efforts but because it
is outfailing them. Because the open source
ecosystem, and by extension open social
ecosystems generally, rely on peer production,
the work on those systems can be considerably
more experimental at a considerable less cost,
than any firm can afford”
(from page 245 of the hard cover version)

9. Nick Carr
“Simply put, it remains difficult, if not
impossible, to draw any broad
conclusions about IT's effect on the
competitiveness and profitability of
individual businesses”

10. 1) Support & Training
• Who will you call?
• Quality of documentation

11. 2) Risks
• Early mover disadvantages
• Who is responsible for bug fixing ?
• Systems don’t last forever – who will help
you when they die?
• e.g. HyperContent, Mambo

12. 3) Requirements

13. Case:
• Recognized that no system is perfect and
meets all requirements
• Selected Plone for initial scoping exercise
with small integrator

14. 4) Implementation
• Significant cost factor
• Would you implement yourself?

15. 5) Community
• What are your plans for engaging with the
community?

16. Case:
• Selected TYPO3 and decided to work with
small integrator while building their own
implementation skills
• Attended TYPO3 conference and actively
participates in community

17. Your opportunity
1. You can save money with open source
2. Engage with the community
3. Look beyond technology when selecting a new
vendor / system
Make the right decisions

18. Sources of vendor-neutral
inspiration
CMS Watch - www.cmswatch.com
Content Here by Seth Gottlieb
www.contenthere.com
Graham Oakes - www.grahamoakes.co.uk
IntranetFocus by Martin White
www.intranetfocus.com
Jon On Tech – www.jonontech.com
Step Two Designs - www.steptwo.com.au

19. Continue the conversation…
• J. Boye Blog: jboye.com/blog
• Community of Practice: jboye.com/community-of-practice
• Email: jb@jboye.dk
• Twitter: @janusboye
• LinkedIn: http://dk.linkedin.com/in/janusboye