I have spent the past two months recuperating from my medical setback – reading, rebuilding my physical strength and of course, writing an occasional blog post or two. My doctors have given me permission to work — four hours a day – though travels and excessive appointments everyday are still a no-go. Nevertheless, it does feel good to resume some sort of normalcy. As part of my return, I would like to introduce to you the newest member of the GigaOM network: OStatic. It is a blog devoted to open-source software, notably the business of it (and the name is a play on “Ecstatic about Open Source”).
Why open source? And why now? I think the answer to both questions lies with recent events in the software industry: RedHat Software snapping up JBoss, Sun Microsystems’ billion-dollar buyout of MySQL and Microsoft’s decision to open up. All are part of a larger trend that has transformed open source from little more than a curiosity into a legitimate and viable part of the business ecosystem.
The open-source movement is ready to revolutionize the mobile phone industry; even traditional telecom is starting to see its potential. Asterisk, for instance, has become a source of innovation, and has helped spawn companies like Truphone. And venture dollars have started to flow into open-source startups at an increasingly rapid clip. Open source is slowly but surely touching (and changing) our daily lives.
For this new venture, we have deviated a little bit from our traditional blog model – we are adding a directory that lists about 150,000 software listings. The listings link to either projects, their original home pages, or SourceForge. The new blog also has a “Q&A” section that will allow you to ask questions and get answers from the community. The technology and a lot of the initial content for the site has come via a licensing agreement with Cambridge, Mass.-based VOX Holdings.
I hope you will give the new blog a fair shake and add it to your RSS reader. (You can do that by clicking and subscribing to the OStatic feed.) If you are a subscriber to the GigaOM Network feed then you will see OStatic posts show up in your feed reader automatically.
With this out of the way, and me back on track (partially), it’s time to start working on the next blog. Ah…the stress of deadlines.
Update:
18 trackbacks so far
9:44 PM PT
[...] It’s a new blog about the business of open [...]
1:47 AM PT
[...] Malik throws out some thoughts today that are more interesting than he might realize. He introduces the blog [...]
4:08 AM PT
[...] morning, the GigaOM network introduces OStatic, a site (not just a blog) entirely focused on the open source community. Beyond just news, [...]
4:09 AM PT
GigaOM network’s new OStatic blog covers the business of open source
Last night, Om Malik introduced the GigaOM network’s latest blog:
OStatic … a blog devoted to open-source software, notably the business of it (and the name is a play on “Ecstatic about Open So
5:36 AM PT
[...] the rest of this great post here Author: admin Time: Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 11:15 pm Category: Open Source Comments: [...]
5:36 AM PT
[...] recuperating Om Malik announced the launch of OStatic (launch post) a little while ago. OStatic is an opensouce focused blog within the GigaOM [...]
5:40 AM PT
[...] Open Source Software - Find, Evaluate, Collaborate. Το νέο blog από τον Om Malik έχει αντικείμενο το Open Source, μέσα από μία [...]
6:28 AM PT
[...] 4, 2008 Posted by Furrier.org in social media. Tags: Giga Omni Media, Gigaom, Om Malik trackback Congrats to Om Malik for expanding into another microcontent vertical - open source. I really like Om and his team of investors at Giga OmniMedia not only are they [...]
7:37 AM PT
[...] 4, 2008 Yesterday, Om Malik announced Ostatic, the newest member of the GigaOm family of blogs. Here’s how editor Sam Dean introduced the [...]
8:14 AM PT
[...] Matt Asay wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptthe rest of this great post here Author: admin Time: Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 11:15 pm Category: Open Source Comments: […] [...]
12:19 PM PT
[...] vinkulo==aqui [...]
2:12 AM PT
[...] Back on the Beat: Introducing OStatic, the Open Source Blog [...]
7:39 AM PT
[...] es el nuevo blog de GigaOM enfocado en el software abierto. El objetivo que persiguen es seguir el desarrollo de los más de 150,000 proyectos open que andan girando por [...]
3:44 PM PT
[...] GigaOM [...]
11:28 PM PT
[...] Gigaom: Introducing OStatic;the opensource blog [...]
2:27 AM PT
[...] Om Malik launched his latest blog today — OStatic, aimed at the ‘freetard’ set, focusing on [...]
12:03 AM PT
[...] Note: with the recent launch of GigaOm’s, Ostatic, which promotes Open Source by matching users to the right OS tools and [...]
12:03 AM PT
[...] Note: with the recent launch of GigaOm’s, Ostatic, which promotes Open Source by matching users to the right OS tools and [...]
25 comments so far
9:32 PM PT
Hey Om - looking forward to it except it simply asks for username and password to access it…
M
10:00 PM PT
Welcom back, Om! Great to have you back in the saddle. I look forward to kicking the tires of the new blog.
Christian Anderson
10:04 PM PT
Matt
Sorry about that. the password is off now. Slight problems w had. thanks for bearing with us.
10:10 PM PT
Om,
This is a brilliant idea with a huge potential.
Congratulations,
Edwin
10:16 PM PT
@ Edwin
THanks for the words of encouragement.
@ Christian,
Glad to be back. While not 100%, it is still good to get a certain regiment going on a daily basis.
10:21 PM PT
Verrry interesting! I always marveled at how much power the Open Source movement held, and always lamented at how poorly that power was truly exposed!
This is wonderful! I love how you can play with the project data and list alternatives! Now I can really start to junk my M$FT stuff for true Open Source!
Wouldn’t it be nice if we can actually rate which alternative was the best? How ’bout that?
Good leadership!
1:25 AM PT
Good luck, Om :)! And I hope your health will be even better!
It seems we thought at the same idea in almost the same time…
I just launched (link) (web software extensive reviews…open source or not, standalone applications or as a service)…
Being a web developer and sometime having to choose from different software for my work I had to dig to find the information need it.
So then I thought “why not build a database of reviews and get other developers involved in writing reviews?”…I bet there are tons of users who would like to have these kind of info…
So if your new blog, Om, and mine (and other blogs) helps people finding the info then I guess it’s a good thing for everybody…
5:23 AM PT
Good luck Om. Great to see you back in action.
5:50 AM PT
Om - thanks and great site! As always, very much enjoy having you around!
Matt
6:55 AM PT
Congrats — I really like the layout, too. One request…could you show a bit more of the article before requiring us to click on “continue reading”?
7:03 AM PT
Welcome back, Om!
Smart move to setup a blog focused on Open Source business. :-)
7:09 AM PT
@ JZ,
Thanks buddy. good to hear from you and congrats to you.
@ All,
It is great to be back, and thinking and reporting and blogging. Okay it is still on a “daily budget” but feels good. I hope you like some of the new things I plan to do here.
7:24 AM PT
Dont want to sound negative but how long will Ostatic remain “Open” if Microsoft starts paying for the advertising real estate in Ostatic? The way slashdot.org has changed because of MS dollar power is an eye opener. Can Ostatic swear not to take any MS dollar directly or indirectly until the day OpenSource wins decisively over Microsoft.
7:29 AM PT
“open” a fancy term used for everything, people forgot the real definition of open source. In reality there is almost nothing open source based on the original definition of open source…freedom is replaced by fuel (money). if you see the activity of the current open source projects… that are directly related with the income . If Linux is dead (somehow it’s still alive)…Linux community (real open source) also dies with it.
I was part of 3 open source projects in the past…few people came out and making money. What happened to the original goal??
What I like to say is…developers spending time and effort to make the software, their original goal was that to learn, get some experience, help people, joining with community….it’s more than their profession…
I like to see death of “commercial open source”, will it happen? or we are going to come up with many more open source business models?… open source by default very disruptive. I hope your new venture may help to think back and see where we should really go…Best of luck!
Saran
8:08 AM PT
Our “welcome back” ain’t part-time even if your attendance still is limited.
Glad to see more of you in cyberspace, Om.
8:29 AM PT
Re: “we are adding a directory that lists about 150,000 software listings.” If there is a link to this “directory,” I am unable to recognize it…
8:41 AM PT
@Eideard…. Now that is a nice thing to say. Thanks
10:25 AM PT
Om, Great Job and glad to see you’re back in action and hope you’re feeling better! People have definitely started realizing the potential of the Open Source movement and getting your validation & commitment definitely helps. Congratulations and keep it coming!
10:38 AM PT
You hit the bull’s eye again. Seems in technology media ventures you are going to rein. Good Luck.
11:58 AM PT
I don’t mean to call shenanigans, but shouldn’t a blog about the industry and life of Open Source, run on Free Open Source Software?
Correct me if I am wrong.
4:37 PM PT
@Rob Friedman: It runs on Drupal. Drupal is open source.
9:40 PM PT
Nicely done! Lookin’ sharp, my man. Rock it. Free the source!
12:17 AM PT
@foofy,
coulda fooled me.
Give them a little publicity. That’s what I say.
Wouldn’t you at least want to put somewhere in the html source that’s it’s Drupal?
11:40 PM PT
Sun (JAVA) has agreed to pay $800 million in cash and assume $200 million in options for MySQL, which had raised $38.5 million from venture and strategic investors including Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, SAP, Intel Capital and Red Hat.
2:53 AM PT
Good luck Om.
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