That was the Open Source Thinktank

I'm sitting here in the gentle breeze of a 14°C Californian spring day, almost forgetting that we're still only February and that the climate shock upon return tomorrow will be considerable.

As most bloggers attending the Thinktank will do presumably, I could now iterate over the list of takeaways after this highly interesting event, but I promised to restrain the writing juices in favor of a real publication.

Was it worthwhile coming over? Well, it sure was an eyeopener and a repeat confirmation how different the market of software companies in general, and open source businesses specifically is between Europe and the US. It's hard trying not to be impressed with the "ability to execute" one encounters with US software companies, the "can do" mentality which makes a world of difference in the reality of running an innovative business.

I'm not talking the IT workers here, I'm talking management, investors, large customers. I'm pretty sure that the EU IT worker has a skill set comparable to his US colleagues, and the open source ecosphere is kind of proving that in the first place: US people actually believe that a lot of the open source innovation stems from Europe. Granted, with examples like Linux and MySQL there's nothing new there, however if you look at the history of those big projects I sense some moment of change once the US got into their picture. It's no surprise that both prodigal children of the open source evolution found a lot of success oversee.

I found the CIO sessions to be quite comforting, actually. I realized, in time, European CIOs will shed their shades and be able to look more clearly at what is happening in the industry: yes, we're shifting from a product towards a services (subscription, SaaS) world, but the key differentiators in choosing that service supplier won't be only headcount or domain familiarity anymore, but also adherence with the open source world.

They'll find out that, even more important than stuffing their org with lots of blue-suit consultants and outsourced or freelanced interim developers, they will need to learn about the fundamentals of the unavoidable use of open source components in their organization's IT landscape. And they'll find out that they'll have to pick service suppliers who are an inherent part of the ecosphere, rather than just the typical we-integrate-anything service company opening tins of developer flesh.

I see a lot of business there for service suppliers who are getting it, like IBM Global Services (although not necessarily on a country level, I'm afraid to say). But I also see that the key differentiator for us as a company will be the A-type level of service we can provide, around Daisy now and later around Kauri as well, the kind of service level only the makers can provide.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go for a little walk in this delightful spring Napa setting. Anyone I need to take an iPhone home for?