What should “open source” really mean to me? (2/2)

It's difficult for many to understand how open source applies in the business world. Most folks get trapped in the mindset of software as product, yet many folks have built businesses based on Open Source - usually by giving away the software / algorithms, but selling implementation services. The Trolltech story is another (typical) twist - free software for non-commercial use, but licensing the stuff to corporations. Why would the latter work? Because of the other difficulty business has with…

What should “open source” really mean to me? (1/2)

The question of the "erosion" of the term has been posed before (good thread!). Over the past few weeks, I've slogged through web content about ... Open Source Software (aka FOSS): Projects and products are becoming commonplace; as evidence, I submit articles such as this (1 of 2), that take the airline magazine approach of chatting up basic ideas like "ROI is often soft" and applying to the Current Topic. There's nothing really stunningly insightful here, just talking about the…

Euphemisms, and a career-extending paradox

I use a number of euphemisms all the time, in my conversations with folks, trying to balance complete yet brief communications. A common phrase when trying to show that you've seen a similar situation before is ... "In a previous life ..." (IAPL), as in "In a previous life, we did consolidated financials within the ERP ...". I find it's a bit smoother than citing the bigger company you used to work for (sounds condescending) or the smaller company you…