• on how I’m teaching startupinformatik at my University (in German),
• how that teaching feels like (the AMOS lab course) (in English),
• as well as recent spoils like Mydosis (others coming up).

Enjoy!

I’m an Addison-Wesley author and just received a letter from Pearson, the owner of Addison-Wesley, informing me about their thoughts and steps towards e-books and the digital age. The letter is written as an open letter with no apparent secrets, so I’m making it available here for anyone interested to read and to comment on it.

In general, I have sympathies with companies trying to sustain their revenue streams. I do expect them, however, to understand that change is inevitable and to flexibly react to and to lead that change for their customers’ sake and not just their shareholders’ sake. As an author, I’m naturally in a similar or at least related situation.

The PDF is marked up with numbers. The following list relates to what the (German) letter says on the respective issues:

1. Letter: “The e-book is entering mainstream [...]” – I’m glad to see Pearson realized that e-books are inevitable. While some may argue that’s hardly news I’m well aware of many publishers still fighting this development.
2. Letter: “It is important to maintain price control [...]” – I can also understand that distribution partners are trying to take their share of the revenue and that this is a major struggle for publishers who missed out on creating their own effective channels.
3. Letter: “We believe in the value of content you entrust to us [...]” – Naturally, as an author, I believe in the value of my books. I also hope that this value can be enhanced through e-books and ancillary services! I don’t agree that this naturally leads to DRM (Digital Rights Management) as a primary control mechanism. There may be reasons for and uses of DRM, but not as a general approach to e-books. Here is my thinking:
   • DRM is a nuissance and typically locks me into a platform. As a buyer, I don’t get the full freedom of use that I’m used from trad. books. Personally, I hate this. It is the primary reason why I never bought anything on iTunes and will keep a safe distance to all things Apple and proprietary lock-in.
   • DRM may be an intermediary solution until publishers figure out a better business model. As such, DRM is fighting progress, trying to keep us locked into “old ways of doing things”, thus reducing the potential for innovation and making us all worse off.
4. Letter: “[...] we use DRM to protect your content [...]” – I don’t like suggestive sentences like “it is important for authors to have their content protected” – who said that? Nobody says you should naively dump all works onto the net; the smart publisher uses the net for experimentation with new business models rather than trying to maintain the status quo.
5. Letter: “[...] Rough Cuts gives readers a pre-release version of a book [...]” – I’m reassuring publishers that innovation will happen, like this example given by Pearson here. So, publishers need to improve their ability to innovate, more rapidly. How to feature-differentiate? How to enhance value? How to provide complementary services? That’s Business 101.
6. Letter: “[...] how to consume books will be an important issue [...]” – So it is obvious to me that the publishing products of the future will be much more than just “books” as still suggested by much of this letter.

The good news? Innovation can open up new revenue streams. I actually believe that well-done e-books should cost more than the paper copy. If DRM didn’t get in the way, that is. I certainly would be willing to pay more for the added flexibility and benefits, and the main reason why I’m not doing it today is that I can’t stand the restrictions of being locked into some random platform trying to dictate my usage patterns.

As an author, shouldn’t I simply be behind Pearson supporting them in any way I can? After all, I’ll be getting more royalty payments if Pearson is making more money? The answer is obviously no, not just out of principle, but also because not pushing ahead with innovation is robbing me of additional revenues.

A technology is disruptive, if it allows new companies to shake up an established market and win against established large companies.

I got asked three times this week what “disruptive” means so here is my definition

Zusammenfassung: In fast jedem Softwareprodukt, auch in großer Standardsoftware, sind heute Open-Source-Komponenten enthalten. Die Hersteller dieser Software müssen die Geschäftsrisiken, die mit der Integration von Open-Source-Software in kommerzielle Produkte verbunden sind, verstehen und vernünftig managen. Dieser Artikel zeigt ein Modell verschiedener rechtlicher, technischer und sozialer Risiken auf, die durch unkontrollierten Einsatz von Open-Source-Software entstehen und erläutert ausgewählte Erfolgsmethoden der Open-Source-Governance, die von führenden Firmen angewandt werden. Das Modell ist das Analyseergebnis von fünf mit großen deutschen Softwareherstellern geführten Interviews sowie weiterer Literaturrecherche.

Stichwörter: Open-Source-Komponenten, Open-Source-Governance, Geistiges Eigentum, Code-Scanner, Softwareprodukte

Referenz: Martin Helmreich, Dirk Riehle. “Geschäftsrisiken und Governance von Open-Source in Softwareprodukten”. In Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik (HMD 283) 49. Jahrgang, Februar 2012.

Inhaltsübersicht

1. Open-Source-Komponenten in kommerziellen Produkten
2. Methodisches Vorgehen
3. Grundlagen zum geistigen Eigentum
4. Identifizierte Geschäftsrisiken
   1. Unkontrollierter und ungeregelter Einsatz von Open-Source-Komponenten
   2. Aktive Beiträge in der Open-Source-Community
   3. Verwicklung in ein Gerichtsverfahren
   4. Verpflichtung, Source-Code offenzulegen
   5. Verurteilung wegen einer Patentverletzung
5. Beispiele für Erfolgsmethoden
1. Überwachung der Lieferantenschnittstelle
2. Einsatz von Code-Scannern
3. Entwicklerausbildung
6. Integration in den Entwicklungszyklus
7. Literatur

Der Artikel ist zur Zeit nicht frei verfügbar. Sie können aber über mich eine Vorabversion erhalten. Dazu nehmen Sie bitte Email-Kontakt mit mir auf. Sechs Monate nach Veröffentlichung wird der Artikel dann hier direkt als PDF zur Verfügung stehen.

THE 8th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OPEN SOURCE SYSTEMS

Hammamet, Tunisia, 10-13 September 2012

Scope of OSS 2012

Over the past two decades, Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) has introduced new successful models for creating, distributing, acquiring and using software and software-based services. Inspired by the success of FLOSS, other forms of open initiatives have been gaining momentum. Open source systems (OSS) now extend beyond software to include open access, open documents, open science, open education, open government, open cloud, open hardware, open artworks and museum exhibits, open innovation and more. On the one hand, the openness movement has created new kinds of opportunities such as the emergence of new business models, knowledge exchange mechanisms, and collective development approaches. On the other hand, the movement has introduced new kinds of challenges, especially as different problem domains embrace openness as a pervasive problem solving strategy. OSS can be complex yet widespread and often cross-cultural. Consequently, they require an interdisciplinary understanding of their technical, economic, legal and socio-cultural dynamics.

The goal of 8th International Conference on Open Source Systems, OSS 2012, the first to be held in Africa, is to provide an international forum where a diverse community of professionals from academia, industry and public sector, and diverse OSS initiatives can come together to share research findings and practical experiences. The conference is also meant to provide information and education to practitioners, identify directions for further research, and to be an ongoing platform for technology transfer, no matter which form of OSS is being pursued.

OSS 2012 accepts submissions in the following categories: research papers, industry papers, formal tool demonstrations, lightning talks and posters. OSS 2012 also invites proposals for tutorials and workshops, submissions to the doctoral symposium, and submissions of panels. Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings, which are published by Springer. The major conference theme is long-term sustainability with OSS.

Topics of Interest

OSS sustainability

• Sustainability models of OSS
• Building sustainable OSS communities
• Role of OSS in ICT and sustainable development
• Mining sustainability related data from OSS communities
• Experience reports and lessons on sustainable OSS ecosystems

OSS as innovation

• Adoption/ use / acceptance of OSS
• Dissemination / redistribution / crowdsourcing of OSS systems
• Expanding scientific research and technology development methods through openness
• Adopting innovation in OSS projects

OSS practices and methods

• OSS and traditional / agile development methods
• OSS and decentralized development
• Knowledge and documentation management in OSS

OSS technologies

• OSS over the Internet
• Security of OSS
• Interoperability / portability / scalability of OSS
• Open standards / open data / open cloud / open hardware / open exhibits
• Reuse in OSS
• OSS for entertainment
• OSS for education
• Architecture and design of OSS

Economic / organizational / social issues on OSS

• Economic analysis of OSS
• Business models of OSS
• Maturity models of OSS
• OSS in public sector
• OSS intellectual property, copyrights and licensing
• Non-Governmental Organizations and OSS

Important Dates (Deadlines)

1. Submissions due: March 9, 2012
2. Workshop proposals: March 16, 2012
3. Panels and tutorials proposals: May 25, 2012
4. Results to authors: April 13, 2012
5. Camera-ready copy due: May 11, 2012
6. Early registration: June 15, 2012

Submission

Upload contributions in PDF format at http://oss2012.org/.

Organization

General Chairs

• Walt Scacchi, University of California, Irvine, USA
• Tommi Mikkonen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland

Program Chairs

• Imed Hammouda, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
• Björn Lundell, University of Skövde, Sweden

Local Organizing Chairs

• Said Ouerghi, University of Manouba, Tunisia
• Khaled Sammoud, University of Tunis el Manar, Tunisia

Call for Papers 征稿启事

The European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP) is the premium international conference covering all areas of object technology and related software development technologies. ECOOP 2012 will take place from 11-16 June, 2012 in Beijing, China — only the second time ECOOP has been held outside Europe. ECOOP 2012 embraces a broad range of topics related to object-orientation, including:

• Analysis and design methods and patterns
• Databases, persistence, transactions
• Concurrent, parallel, distributed, mobile, and real-time systems
• Empirical and application studies
• Frameworks, product lines, software architectures
• Language design and implementation
• Modularity, aspects, features, components, services, reflection
• Software development environments and tools
• Static and dynamic software analysis, testing, and metrics
• Theoretical foundations, type systems, formal methods
• Versioning, compatibility, software evolution

ECOOP 2012 solicits high quality submissions describing original and unpublished results. Papers will be evaluated according to originality and significance, precision and correctness, presentation and clarity, and relevance. Incremental improvements over previously published work should have been evaluated through systematic, comparative, empirical or experimental evaluation. Submissions of papers describing groundbreaking approaches to emerging problems will be considered based on timeliness and potential impact.

Only papers that have not been published and are not under review for publication elsewhere may be submitted. Double submissions will be rejected without review. Authors are required to disclose prior publication (formal or informal) of parts of the paper submitted to ECOOP or of closely related papers. Such prior publications must be cited and their relationship to the current submission explained. Authors are also required to inform the ECOOP 2012 program chair about closely related work submitted to another conference while the ECOOP submission is under review.

Submissions will be carried out electronically via CyberChair. Papers must be written in English, and be no longer than 25 pages, including references, appendices and figures, and written using the LNCS style. For more information about formatting please consult the Springer LNCS web site at http://www.springer.com. Clearly marked additional appendices, not intended for the final publication, containing supporting proofs, analyses, statistics, etc, may be included beyond the 25 page limit. The paper must stand alone, however, and reviewers are under no obligation to read any additional appendices. Reviewers are more likely to consult additional appendices rather than separate technical reports. ECOOP papers will be reviewed by the programme committee and additional expert reviewers: authors will have the opportunity to respond to reviews before the programme committee meeting.

For ECOOP 2012, submissions that have been submitted but not accepted by previous prestigious conferences (such as ECOOP, OOPSLA, POPL, PLDI, ICSE, or AOSD) may additionally submit a Note to Reviewers. The Note to Reviewers should a) identify the previous venue(s) (e.g. ECOOP’2011, OOPSLA’2010); b) list the major issues identified by the reviews at those venues; and c) describe the changes made to the paper in response to those reviews.

Important dates 重要日期

Submission deadline

17 December 2011, 23:59 (Samoa)

Author rebuttals

13-14 February 2012

Acceptance notification

29 February 2012

More information

For more information, see the ECOOP 2012 website.

Call for Contributions (SPLC 2012)

We invite the following classes of contributions:

1. Research papers: (max. 10 pages, 5 for short papers) describe original research contributions (theoretical, conceptual) to the field of software product line engineering. We also call for short research papers, which are intended to report ideas in their early stages. Submission deadline: Feb. 20th, 2012.
2. Industrial papers: (max. 10 pages for full, 5 for short papers) describe experience in introducing, implementing and evolving product lines and success stories or problem reports of applications of product line engineering methods, techniques and tools in industry. Submission deadline: Feb. 20th, 2012. All research and full industry papers will be included in the conference proceedings, which will be published through the ACM Digital Library.
3. Workshops: The purpose of the workshop program is to provide a forum for bringing together people from industry, academia, and research institutions to present and discuss research results and practices. Workshops should be organized as full-day events. Submission deadline: March 1st, 2012.
4. Tutorials: Tutorials will be held during the conference week in full-day or half-day sessions. A tutorial proposal consists of two pages describing the topic, the plan for conducting the tutorial, and the backgrounds of the presenters and the tutorial. We explicitly invite tutorials that have been held at other events. Submission deadline: March 1st, 2012.
5. Submissions to Hall of Fame: Each SPLC culminates with a session in which members of the audience nominate systems for induction into the Software Product Line Hall of Fame. Those nominations feed discussions about what constitutes excellence and success in product lines. More information on nominations and election can be found at the conference website or at http://www.splc.net/fame.html
6. Demonstrations and Tools: Demonstrations show the application of novel product line engineering concepts and techniques in practice. The demonstration with realistic use cases is encouraged. Submission deadline: April 30th, 2012.
7. Doctoral Symposium: The Doctoral Symposium gives doctoral students the opportunity to discuss their research plans with experienced members of the community. Submission deadline: May 18th, 2012.

Further information regarding the submission processes and submission dates can be found in the separate calls on the website http://www.splc2012.net/ We invite you to be part of SPLC!

Information regarding sponsoring can be found on the website.

For further information please contact contact@splc2012.net.

1. Cloud computing, like open source, is not a business model in itself, but an enabler of business models
2. Cloud computing is not a business model but a distribution (read: sales and marketing) strategy
3. Cloud computing, like open source, will have a novel type of business model built solely from commodities (distributors and utility computing, respectively)
4. Cloud computing, like open source, will have a novel type of business model using proprietary software (single-vendor/open core and single-source clouds, respectively)
5. Truly new businesses built using cloud computing need to educate their customers, i.e. rapidly grow the market; while doing that it is a landgrab
6. Cloud computing, like open source, will be commoditized over time, where a commoditization frontier drives an innovation frontier to keep expanding
7. Open source and cloud computing work synergistically, helping each other, as examples like SugarCRM show

I expect 2. above to be most controversial. That’s because many cloud experts talk about cost of providing the cloud service first before they talk about customer value, implying that customer value is a consequence of cost. Which is obviously getting it backwards. The core cloud computing customer values of try-before-you-buy, pay-as-you-go, higher quality of service, etc. are enabled by novel technology, which can also come with a lower cost structure.

Cloud computing is a sales and distribution strategy because the fine-grain provision and releasing of resources and the matching fine-grain pricing schedule drive adoption of cloud services through the line-of-business rather than the IT department. Open source strategy, anyone?

The slides + notes from the talk are available as PDFs (slides, slides + notes). I recommend you read the slides + notes version.