OSBR on Twitter

The OSBR is now on Twitter. While I'm still getting used to the whole idea of saying something useful within 140 characters, it is a good way to keep up with what OSBR authors and other readers are up to.

Open or Closed? Choosing the Right Software Model

Choosing the right software model is an increasingly difficult decision for both business and academic researchers. This half-day session at the University of Waterloo Accelerator Centre will bring together representatives from proprietary and open software vendors, as well as university researchers, to discuss this critical strategic choice. Whether you’re contemplating a start-up, looking to expand your product line, or trying to share a research project with the world, this forum will offer insights into your alternatives. Registration details are available here.

March Issue of OSBR Available

The March issue of the Open Source Business Resource is now available in HTML and PDF formats. The theme this month is "Geospatial" and the articles and authors include:

Paul Ramsay, a Senior Consultant with OpenGeo, examines how geospatial open source provides an example of the market challenges of a mid-sized vertical market.

Tyler Mitchell, Executive Director of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, discusses the factors needed to get open source geospatial products into the hands of users, the value of marketing open source projects, and the advantages provided by an open source ecoystem.

Mark Lucas, a principal scientist at RadiantBlue Technologies Inc., and Scott Bortman, system architect and primary developer for the OMAR web processing system, introduce the OMAR web based system for archival, retrieval, processing, and distribution of geospatial assets.

Andrew Ross, a Director within the Engineering team at Ingres, provides a primer on geospatial technology and discusses some of the lessons learned from Ingres' geospatial open source project.

Haris Kurtagic, General Manager and Founder of SL-King, and Geoff Zeiss, Director of Technology at Autodesk, introduce a standards-based framework for providing geospatial web services.

The editorial theme for the upcoming April issue of the OSBR is "Open APIs" and the guest editor will be Michael Weiss from Carleton University. Contact me if you're interested in a submission.