LinuxCon: the open source ecosystem is not a zero-sum game

Linux and open source development is not a zero sum game. This was a clear message from the Ubuntu technical architect Allison Randal in speech at LinuxCon, but sentiment had been formulated in several ways-week round of all here. Processes in which the company makes a great open source a better world for all.

"Free software is fundamentally superior model for software development," Randall repeated several times. In addition to the classic Linus Bill ("given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow"), Randall made the claim that people long to be part of something greater than themselves, and free software development met, in spades.

According to Randall, the future of technological innovation is not theft limited resources away from each other, but the creation of new resources and new opportunities for the creation of new resources — together in a rich ecosystem. The term "ecosystem" made several times in my chat with Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of technology and Dan Frye, Vice President IBM open systems development. FRY, it is clear that the efforts of IBM Linux should be a "solution" as opposed to a product company. IBM does not make their own Linux distro, but they work hard to make the kernel and other key open source projects that bring value to IBM customers.

It's all about collaboration and working together with other members of the open source software. Sometimes this means cooperating with direct competitors, but IBM "gets it" that this collaboration on open source creates new resources for all, and they are cutting the throat of competition for a finite number of clients. Of course they strenuously compete in various markets, and sometimes they strenuously compete with companies with whom they collaborate with open source. But this is not a zero sum game.

Wladawsky-Berger continued the explanation of "solutions", indicating that the skyscraper ever built by a single company. Legions of small companies specializing work together under the leadership of the project manager to coordinate and implement their specific tasks in the correct order. This ultimately how IBM provides yourself as a leader in the ecosystem of open source work to enable new workloads for their clients.

There are many ways to thrive in the open source ecosystem. Whether his continued commitment to excellence of the kernel (a la Linus Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman) or commitment to the preparation of viable, use tools for all users to avoid reinventing the wheel. Yocto project works on this for the embedded space, like SUSE, under the leadership of fresh Attachmate, allocates them open build services help people roll packages for several distributions. SUSE also exchange their SUSE Studio to enable ISVS and companies to develop and maintain their own Linux for use in devices and a "golden master" to create images. You do not need to be SUSE customers use these tools.

But all this cooperation is not always natural. Companies are still beholden to shareholders and their bottom line, after all. So sometimes it takes a neutral third party to get together the parties concerned, neutrality and Shepherd communication channels. It is here that the Linux Foundation comes into play. They provide most of the framework and management of communications between competitors, which have led to unprecedented technological progress in many industries.

"Free software is fundamentally superior model for software development," said Allison Randal. Eucalyptus systems Marten Mickos took it one step further: "any company with the strategy IT should open source strategy. It is important to recognize and embrace! is a large ecosystem of Linux and open source software and find a way to work within it to increase the number of available resources, for which to compete.

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The Snackers become cord cutters; Change the TV world as we know it

Editor's Note: this is a guest post was written by Frank Barbieri, SVP of new platforms to YuMe. You can follow him @ frankba

Every five years over the past two decades, introducing the connection to the Internet to a new type of device creates a boom in disruptive companies. Most of these rods, computers and mobile phones, game consoles and now tablets — clearly a success. Other (remember network computer?) were ill-timed.

Now manufacturers and growing ecosystem of partners to support them, are betting big that consumers finally ready to accept connections to the Internet in their most cherished basis technology, living room, television. Players from Samsung, Sony and the so-called connected TV (CTV) market to the masses and you'll see a big push this holiday season. There are already more than 14 million KT in North America and about 65 per cent of television sets sold in 2012 will KT.

With each platform changes to try to grab a share of the transfer fee, which inevitably comes when consumers change their habits are both new and established companies. North America TV advertising is certainly no exception as many companies, the old and the new line up to try to grab their share of the advertising annual holiday that $ 62 billion.

Although some preparation to date, the incumbents have a very difficult time, cannibalizing existing revenue streams for cultivation, but nevertheless to reach maturity, new sources of income. We've seen it all from books for brokerages. And worldwide TV, we see it on display with the recent stuttering Hulu, pioneering the archetype, catching arrows at them back on once the obligation of partners as they boldly move forward.

That is the nature of distribution, when business advantage hinges mainly on the pricing and bundling and carefully limited access, not on real consumers showed desire and behavior.

Technology has always been in the side of consumers, especially in the field of view television. You may not remember now, but broadcasters brutally fought of the arrival of cable in the 1970s and although it is now seems absurd, he has created hundreds of billions of revenue, the Studio struggled against the arrival of the DVD in the late 1990s. The beginning of the title are a handful of b movies released by Warner Brothers in connection with Toshiba. This was all Toshiba can be obtained at the time.

We can see another violation today. With the new wave of CTV application content can dispel pricing and access the benefits of cable television. Imagine downloading the application directly from the programme, TNT, Turner rather than pay the cable company to access the contents of the Turner. Content providers are already, or soon will have the tools to their audience directly on the big screen. Turner can pocket 100% of any subscription fees and advertising revenue rather than to share with a partner distribution.

The traditional distribution of players, but not banking on the fact that the new television distribution will look much the old distribution of television. They are expanding their services include on-demand viewing and hoping that things will continue as before with consumers, content bundles.

But what if it isn't, it goes down? What if both mobile phones and PCS to consumers choose to snack on content delivered directly to their content providers, effectively removing the pricing, bundling and advantage of traditional distribution of cable and satellite television. In this world power delivery and advertising insertions, changes directly to content providers and device manufactures direct online business ecosystem of partners that they surround themselves with in this case Internet advertising businesses have a distinct advantage over traditional distribution businesses, as they are already on the market pumping billions of video ads through existing devices such as computers, mobile phones and tablets.

Of course the distribution of staff as Comcast can do IP set-top box connection consumers use to access content directly, loose or a la carte, but it undermines their existing revenue models around cable pricing. Industry calls on the people who run the end of the cable to get their content directly from the content of the company, "cord cutters" in a recent Morgan Stanley report concluded that cable companies will have to double charges for Internet access from the so-called "cord cutters" to compensate for lost revenue on packages of cable television.

There are changes brewing. Years in this business and witness the booms and busts have taught all of us to be careful of the absolutist rhetoric, opens at the end of any particular distribution channels. Consumers have demonstrated a remarkable opportunity to expand their appetites, and new consumption habits prove largely additive, not cannibalism (except my poor printing of friends, of course). So be suspect of those who argues that all programming or advertising will be fully implemented in a certain way. But the numbers are so huge and so large that even 10 percent swing in consumer viewing habits, cable and satellite TV connection and cord scissors would represent a shift in the $ 6.2 (b) advertising costs. It seems to me, is a script is prepared.

Sources include market analysis, GFK, Piper Jaffray and Deutsche Bank.

Frank founded Transpera with vision, helping normal people enjoy new types of mobile video experience. Frank previously ran the media products at InfoSpace and prior to that, ran ...

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ItsAlmo st time for decent countdown tool

Robin Wauters is currently staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. In addition to its activities, professional blogging, he is an entrepreneur, the organizer of the event, from time to time the Council consultant and an angel investor, but the most important champion of the full launch. He lives and works in Belgium, a small country in Europe. He can often be found work from their home or ... ? Read More

There are a number of online applications that allow you to create a timer that counts down to a specific date and time, but frankly, most of them suck. Enter the itsalmo st, appropriately named Web tool that allows you to quickly and easily create countdown essentially nothing (e.g. the day of judgment) and provides you with your custom URL to share with your friends.

Application, which has been hacked together last week, the type code is squeaky-clean and works as advertised (above shows a countdown to TechCrunch disrupt SF).

You can't tell from the screenshot, but the Strip at the bottom of the screen allows you to access all URL count, you have created, start a new or share it on Twitter or Facebook.

Several proposals for the guys who built it, to make it even better:

-There is a whole world outside the United States of America and the people who live there may also be interested in using your handy little tool. Perhaps users could be given the opportunity to change the settings in any way that they could note the date and time they are used.

-bar at the bottom is very difficult to see at first glance – try it up top, changing the color scheme to make it stand out and the default location, recognizable Twitter and Facebook sharing buttons underneath the timer once users have created countdown.

-Let people edit and thus to decide that the URL looks like.

-without touch clean look, consider some of the themes for people to customize their counters.

-consider making counters, embeddable and/or as spiffy widget.

You know you have an application that brings value when users want to see it improved. Nice work.

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Skype for acquisitions-summer group service GroupMe

J. Michael Arrington (born 13 March 1970 in Huntington Beach, California) is a serial entrepreneur and founder of TechCrunch, covering startups and technology news blog. Arrington attended Claremont McKenna (Ba economics, 1992) and Stanford University (JD, 1995) and practiced corporate and securities attorney in two law firms: & rejoined O'Melveny Myers and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich. ? Read More

Skype will acquire GroupMe group service messaging service, was born in the hackathon at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York in 2010. GroupMe was founded by Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci.

The terms of the transaction, including the price, no disclosure.

Just a couple of months after TechCrunch Disrupt the company closed $ 850.000 round financing from Betaworks, SV Angel, first round capital, Lerer ventures and several prominent angels. At the beginning of this year, the company raised $ 10.6 million more from the enterprise better General catalyst and previous investors.

GroupMe lets you create on the fly private telephone group with others and then send text messages throughout the Group and create free conference calls.

Skype CEO of Tony Bates said that he had been talking to the company for several months, at the same time of Skype in the negotiations to be acquired by Microsoft.

Microsoft transaction is still pending.

They will keep GroupMe as a separate brand Bates said and search integration points with time. Group communications space in General is one of the most important markets for Skype ", he told me via Skype video call this morning. He added: "very tacky GroupMe creates an instant sensation. Skype is a daily interactive form of communication. Skype's goal is to reach 1 billion users. Mobile is the place for this. "

GroupMe, which has 20 members, will remain in New York.

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chats over the Internet. Calls to other users through the Skype services are free of charge.

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GroupMe is a group of messaging and Conference calling service that allows you to stay in touch with groups of people through mobile phones. This is a free service that allows users ...

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Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Office ...

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Luxemi — A, rent the podium to Indian clothing and jewellery

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

Using the success of the model lease Luxemi starts off as a Commerce site, where customers can either borrow or buy Indian clothing and accessories. Site is focused on the niche audience of South Asian American women, who do not want to spend money on expensive Indian outfit, or who do not live near a store that sells Traditional Indian wear.

Instead of simply offering clothing and accessories for sale, Luxemi supports two completely different collections: one of the clothing and accessories for sale and the other in "take Cabinet" consisting of clothing and accessories are available for rent. When borrowing, buyers will choose their date of reservation, the rental period (the 4 or 10 days) and their size.

The price for the site starts at $ 78 for traditional Sarees, Salwars and $ 28 for jewellery (backup includes the size of the saree blouse to fit, Luxe Pack for clothes, including contacts, Bindis and clothing bag monitor, free return shipping). Luxemi, which was opened for the entire month, joined 4200 membership, and average order size is over $ 250.

While this certainly will be a hit among American women, it is doubtful whether the Luxemi will have the opportunity to create a market outside of this ethnic demographic. But the launch said that they had seen much interest outside of the South Asian community, with 40 percent of customer orders-Indian.

And Luxemi not the first retail site to meet the Indian-American trading community. Exclusively .in is another e-commerce site, which caters to the Indian diaspora, but with Flash sales model. The company just raised $ 16 million from the global Tiger and is growing fast for the site e-commerce niche.

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(Founder of stories) Kevin o' Connor: "exit strategy is total bullshit"

Josh Zelman works for TechCrunch, as producer, writer, editor and contributor. ? Read More

Chris Dixon wraps up his interview with FindTheBest (DoubleClick) co-founder, Kevin o' Connor, asking him about his ultimate goal of FindTheBest. About ' Connor responds, "the exit strategy is total bullshit," it just does what he likes to do and notes that if you solved a big problem "you end up with many options."

About ' Connor also shows that people actually use the social web less intensively as novelty disappears and becomes an integral part of them on the Internet.

As the interview concludes in the video below, Dixon requests about ' Connor in the marketing channel for its "decision engine" FindTheBest. They discuss how all attempts to game Google makes it harder to be discovered. About ' Connor tells Dixon, the majority of his early efforts focused on SEO. Recognizing the SEO shortcomings (with people trying to manipulate the system) on the ' Connor notes Google is trying to clean up the SEO with Panda and Panda improve results FindTheBest's, 25% the next day after the start of the Panda.

At about 4: 25 in the video, Dixon notes that the market became flooded with FindtheBest B2C Web sites. Dixon asked about ' Connor if he was concerned "that there is so much noise out there that it makes it harder for you to compete?"

About ' Connor responds, "our competitors are 10 000 niche sites, we literally do everything from summer camps programs fractional aircraft that mercury levels in fish. He further States that their competitive advantage lies in the range of categories that compare and big winner in the space will be "who may recoup their R&D account through large base". He ends by saying: "for us to enter any one of these selected markets actually turns out to be very inexpensive.»

Make sure to watch the episodes I, II and III Dixon interview with Kevin o' Connor. Previous stories founder episodes here.

FindTheBest, based in Santa Barbara, California and New York City, is the engine of an impartial, curator, decision-making that enables users to search through a wide range of topics — from ...

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How Discovery will make transactions

Editor's note: Guest correspondent Semil Shah is an entrepreneur interested in digital media, consumer Internet and social networks. He is based in Palo Alto and you can follow him on twitter @ semilshah.

All year round, I heard some variation of this phrase: "big transition from search to discovery, is now online. I still know what it means. I would like to share your thoughts on it and I would like to hear what discovery on the Web means to you.

Firstly I do not believe that there is a shift from search to discovery. Shift is not the right word, because people will continue to look for years based on a specific intention. Secondly, although the opening will not replace the direct search, detection can affect it significantly changing how or where we are looking for. Thirdly, there are two types of detection that are: (1) opening, resulting in a transaction; and (2) it does not end in a transaction.

With this working definition of "open", perhaps we can now say: "the big shift is underway is the Act of detecting can come online, can influence how we search and could help drive deals".

Before you consolidate social network when we bought something online, it seems, the decision-making process that kicked off this transaction began in offline mode (See Amazon and eBay for the fun of it though). Discovery, largely originated in the real world. Now, more people online (and in various social networks), the upper part of the "funnel" begins to create for many online, not offline. In other words, the origin of the decision to purchase something which can be started while we're online, most likely because we actively interact with or passively observe someone we know (friend), or somebody we are interested in (follow).

As Discovery comes online, it certainly will not replace search, but it may have an impact over time. One of the main challenges is our current online behavior. Google is so effective in helping us to find relevant information, skeptics warn that even if the user finds something online to buy, he or she will likely visit Google to find it. In such a way that the opening to the tangible benefits of social networks that help users discover things using data for personalization and targeted information, to create powerful incentives for users not to go on Google to satisfy their intention and to find a way to make a purchase.

For example, if you know what, we discovered, can he recognize the element and provide pricing options and keep appointments, as targeted advertising? What if the user who helped another person open something gets revenue search? In this scenario, the user does not have to visit Google in theory because the conversion from discovery to search for transactions happen on its own. Site that ignites discovery will be rewarded with this income, but to make a real impact, detection will occur to many people. It may take some time.

If you can scale, change behavior and drive another type of transaction in the future, you can also streamline transactions?

You're on Facebook or Twitter. Friend appear in your channel, excited about the new album it is purchased. This one affects your taste in music. Facebook or Twitter identifies the album and provides three options on the right guide for you to purchase the album from iTunes. You want to buy the album, and what to do if you could just click one button (for example, "apply Facebook credit") and let Facebook or Twitter drive transactions and settlement of payment through the service as just sell or Gumroad while you draw inventory from another site? In this scenario, the user finds and buys something in one swoop, never really leaves the site and bypass traditional search.

All this does not happen overnight, although it certainly is now. As someone begins to form the idea of buying and learns that buy something, social networks provide an extremely powerful signals and filters that can influence and purchasing decisions. Learn about the new product from the right person at the right time in the right context, such as the interests of (explicit or implicit) or location (mobile), can bring the entire decision-making process, from discovery to find the payment in full within the same site. Opportunities are so great, and that is why sites like Pinterest, Everlane and Svpply, inter alia, had caused so much interest from customers and investors.

Ultimately all this is going to come down to what users find it more convenient or delightful. Although the user might want to hunt for cheap price of the product, he or she may be willing to pay a little more if the product recommended by someone they know, and if they have reasonable assurance that they receive a fair price from the recommended merchant. The user may elect to stumble on something new, purchase or impulse buy without ever going through the entire process of "normal" online solution. With so many choices for each product, little noise and proposals can be enormous, and true detection can help both sides of the market to find better signals.

In addition, it is difficult to predict just what will happen, or how long it will take to unfold. This is only one point of view. That means online detection for you and how you see its evolution in the Internet?

Photo credit: Cougar

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and money in the world of information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers many ...

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Pinterest is a social service directory. Think of it as a virtual pinboard is a place where you can place the collection things you love and "follow" collections created ...

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Svpply is a social shopping site. The site allows you to register to keep track of products you like. On the basis of your friends on Twitter and facebook, you'll ...

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