NTT, Niku Corporation and yes, even Microsoft, it seems corporations are discovering in a big way how to leverage open source for development and distribution by moving their projects to the Sourceforge ...

• NTT Data's Mini Kernel Dump on SF.net. is a Linux-based mini-kernel that runs underneath Linux kernels on IA-32 systems
• Niku Corporation's Open Workbench is an open source Windows-based project scheduling kit
• Microsoft's FlexWiki is a collaborative authoring environment implemented in dot-NET.

"I'm very encouraged by the growth of corporations embracing Open Source software in their companies both in terms of releasing software (as noted above) and also using it within their corporations to make them more efficient. I suspect we will see this trend accelerate in the near term."
Patrick McGovern
Director, SourceForge.net

I've always liked Pierre Omidyar, one of the first of the truly successful dot-com'ers, the man who put himself online in a blog, one of those rare net entrepreneurs who really gets it and proves his thoughts by putting his money where his mouth is. In the inbox today, news of the new Omidyar Network Commons LLC where Pierre and Pam are joining up with an impressive list of friends to prove the power of individuals to make a real difference, and among their first acts in that regard, a whopping $400,000 handed to the newly redubbed Open Source Technology Group whom you and I know and love as the old OSDN and their flagship SourceForge

"SourceForge.net is critical to building and supporting the needs of the Open Source community," said Iqbal Paroo, President and COO of Omidyar Network. "Like Open Source itself, SourceForge.net embraces collaboration, sharing, and transparency as better ways to develop and distribute software. Through this approach, every willing developer has the power to make a difference to the success of Open Source."

Hear, hear. Well said. The grant is earmarked for useability updates and to develop new developer collaboration and software distribution aids such as the File Release System, expanded forums, and new statistics trackers offered free to any developers willing to share their work.

[ Source: VA Software: Press Release ]

Years ago, I did a prototype financial application for Milton Wong, one of the few billionaires I've ever known on a first-name basis. The year was about 1981, desktop computers were great hulking beasts with 64K for code and another 64K for data, and the King of the Office O/S was CP/M.

Milton told me, "I could spend $20,000 on a feasibility study, find out it's a good idea, and then spend another $20,000 to build it, or I could just give you $20,000, and if you fail, then that was my feasibility study, and if you succeed, I just saved myself $20,000."

But some people like rationalities they can mull over a boredroom table, and for people who like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like:

The report, entitled Open Source: Open for Business details how and why open source has gained strength, provides case study examples, describes a variety of product types and offers a robust appendix of source Web sites. Open Source also contains in-depth information about little-known licensing and legal ramifications.

Robust appendix?

[Source: Desktop Linux ]