Sunday June 05, 2005

Innovation Happens Elsewhere

Innovation Happens Elsewhere, Ron Goldman and Richard P. Gabriel, ISBN 1-55460-889-3, ~400 pages.

I finished Innovation Happens Elsewhere last week and was waiting to post a review until I could post about some related work. But thats been delayed a bit so I thought I should heap some praise on this more then worthy book. The web presence for the book is here.

In one way I've already over hyped this book. If you've been around many open source projects most of the ideas will be familiar. The really cool thing about this book is the very clear and straightforward way it presents using open source in business both for those with an understanding of the open source world and for those that might be just dipping their toe into "gift cultures". Its always hard to become the newbie again when the topic of discussion is something that has been a part of life for almost two decades (I remember plundering comp.sources.games in college). But I think the example laden, task driven, straight shooting discussion of open source and what business reasons exist for entering and what pitfalls one might encountering will help those who are still thinking they are having a flashback to the hippie commune they stumbled into one summer during their youth when they are faced with either having to integrate open source or having their customers or employees talk to them about wanting to open source a product. The chapter list is: Introduction, Innovation Happens Elsewhere, What is Open Source, Why Consider Open Source, Licenses, How To Do Open-Source Development, Going with Open Source, How To Build Momentum, What To Avoid - Known Problems and Failures, and Closing Thoughts. If the reader is familiar with open source development most of the chapters are standalone. But there are very nice nuggets of common sense spread throughout the book which would recommend a cover to cover reading for anybody. ( Jun 05 2005, 10:03:01 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]