Open Sources

Instead of a podcast we jumped on Twitter (March 18, 2009) and rocked out.

Check out the full transcription over on my CNet blog.

For Episode 8 of Open Sources, we’re joined by Luke Kanies, Founder and CEO of Reductive Labs, creators of the open source Puppet project.

The Puppet framework provides a means to describe IT infrastructure as policy, execute that policy to build services then audit and enforce ongoing changes to the policy. Basically Puppet makes infrastructure management dramatically easier.

You can also download the MP3 or OGG file.

In this episode:

• What is Puppet and who uses it (Digg, Google, lots of others)
• How to explain Puppet to business-jerks like me and Matt
• How does Luke as an engineer think about open source business models
• The big problem of cloud computing without centralized management
• The value of high-quality technology and effective IT management
• How does a guy like Luke figure out the commercial strategy for his open source project
• We find out that our guests don’t listen to us
• Your choice of open source license has a huge impact on your business

The opening music this week is ‘Fix up, look sharp’ from Dizzee Rascal’s Boy in da Corner and the closing music is Drinkin’ and Gamblin’ from NJ legends Barbecue Bob and the Spareribs. I hope you all appreciate the level of effort involved in these musical selections.

You can follow us on Twitter @daveofdoom and @mjasay.

Episode 7 of Open Sources started off just fine as our guest Chris Fleck, Vice President, Solutions Development & Community Evangelism, Citrix joined us on time and with a good Skype connection. Sadly, AudioHijack had a bit of a hiccup and stopped recording. As such, we’ll have to try again with Chris. In the meantime you can check out his blog.

For your listening enjoyment you can download the MP3 or Ogg

On the plus side, we effectively use Mute in order to avoid the breathiness you’ve come to love. And next week we’re recording with Reductive Labs/Puppet honcho Luke Kanies and the always effervescent woman-about-town Sarah Lacy (finally!)

In this episode:

• Enterprise microblogging and the fact that Dave got chumped by the CEO of Yammer (or did he chump them?)
• SocialText Signals and the one-stop collaboration shop
• Baseline Magazine seems to be stuck in 2003
• Twitter is hiding their business model from us
• We both missed the Open Source Think Tank cause we don’t drink wine and would prefer some kind of Candyland
• Open source pricing and transparency–people get hung up on numbers
• Lots of people are going to OSBC, I’ll be offering a bit of open source Shawshank Redemption
• TheFunded Startup school–good idea if they get the right people

Intro music is The Mob Goes Wild, by Clutch from Full Fathom Five: Audio Field Recordings 2007-2008. The exit music is a true rarity–the only known recording of legendary NJ doom-surf band The Dungarees. It was recorded on a boom box in a basement and stands as the only (known) recording of this Jersey-shore legend.

You can follow us on Twitter @daveofdoom and @mjasay.

We’re joined on February 26, 2009 for Episode 6 by Neil Erickson, Senior IT Director at a Fortune 500 company. Neil brings some much needed reality to our discussion, reminding us that enterprises are trying to solve problems, not obsess about open versus closed. Neil also calls us the Gwar of open source, bringing back lost memories of my youth.

Recording with Skype remains a pleasure/pain that aches for a better solution. But since Matt is in Utah and I am in my secret lair, we have no choice. And no, I can’t explain why sometimes the podcast works in iTunes and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s just one of many reasons we’re moving it to CNet.

Listen now:

Download
today’s podcast

You can also grab the mp3 or Ogg.

The topics of discussion:

• Open Core licensing–how do enterprises feel about mixed-source/hybrid models?
• Contributions are tough to pull off in many cases even if the enterprises want to give code back.
• Who is the likely vendor to get contributions–can Red Hat make something big happen?
• If not open source or SaaS, how do you do a software company?
• Does proprietary still work given the challenges of the economics?
• Should Matt get his faucet fixed by a plumber or just buy a washer?
• Will Microsoft customers ensure that they don’t destroy open source?
• What about Yammer and private Twitter? Does it make any sense for the enterprise?
• Matt forgets about OSBC, the conference that he started.

Apologies for the heavy breathing. It’s Matt, he’s notorious for it–Ashlee Vance would never let that behavior fly. And thanks to Neil for shining some true enterprise light on our discussion. We’ve got a bunch of guests in queue from our slack time. More soon…

Previous episodes are still available at opensources.com

Welcome to Episode 5 of the Open Sources podcast series. In this episode we discuss several items about venture financing for open source companies, including the fact that Dave knows of 7 companies who are in process or have already closed financing rounds. We also discuss Amazon’s latest console tool that may/may not screw every company that thought they could build on top of EC2.

You can listen to the podcast below, or grab the MP3 or OGG file.

The intro music for this episode is from legendary 60’s band The Monks, from their album Black Monk Time. The end music is No New Rock from Buffalo Daughter’s New Rock.

In Episode 4 of Open Sources, Matt and I welcome our first guest: Sir Robin Yellow, an Englishman, who despite choking several times on mushy peas managed to provide some excellent insight into open source and the enterprise.

You can get the mp3 directly, or the OGG if you are feeling frisky.

You can also try to subscribe on iTunes here.

Some content notes:

• We discuss the furor of stupidity related to Macworld
• Matt refuses to answer questions with a simple yes/no
• Robin assures us that open source will thrive in the enterprise of the future
• We predict an iPhone killer in 2009

In honor of our British guest, the intro music is One Note from Ikara Colt’s Chat and Business.

The ending music is from my ultra-super-secret vault. It’s the Henry Rollins Band doing a cover of Earache My Eye, from Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke. I love that movie.

NOTE: I have no idea why iTunes selectively grabs new episodes. As far as I can tell the feed is setup correctly in Wordpress. So, unless you can help, please stop harassing me. Also if anyone has a better idea of where to store these suckers I am open to that too.

In this episode we cover all kinds of open source content and talk a bit too long as this sucker winds up around 25 minutes. There are some good bits in here provided you can sit through it all.

Listen to the podcast
 

Download the MP3 or for the faithful, the Ogg

Highlights:

• We mock Zack Urlocker for not being able to use Skype
• We lament commenters and open source’s desire to kill itself
• Dave compares open source to punk rock (again)
• Blog traffic is driven by Google, Apple and Microsoft
• We discuss whether or not Sun can sink open source if they fail
• Matt further realizes that open source companies need more value beyond just a license
• Dave demands that James Governor stop filling up everyone’s Twitter box
• We talk about Intellectual Ventures and Dave’s suggestion that they are not evil

Technology wise, I used Audio Hijack Pro and Garage Band and finally took the advice of Michael Cote and used Levelator to even out our voices.

The opening music is Hat and Beard from Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch, one of my favorite albums of all time. The closing music (not for the faint of heart) is Invincible by Today is the Day and is only available on a compilation called Zodiac Dreaming. By the time I had finished swapping this stupid audio file multiple times that song made me feel much better.

Despite not even knowing what day it is, Matt and Dave recorded Episode 2 of the Open Sources podcast for your listening pleasure. In a world of economic turmoil isn’t it nice that you can rely on our foolish thoughts to make you feel better?

Play in your browser
 

In this episode we talk about:

• Companies still getting funded even in the downturn
• Cisco
• Salesforce.com
• Layoffs versus hiring
• Satish’s bad-ass Zimbramobile

The opening music is Rise Above from Black Flag’s Damaged album. The closing music is Wait Till I Can Dream by Tommy Heavenly 6, my favorite Jpop band. Neither song is used with permission so it’s a good thing Matt is an attorney.

Your prayers have been answered! Matt and Dave recorded the first episode of the newly re-named Open Sources Podcast.

Open Season Episode 1 with Dave and Matt

Our previous incarnation of Open Season on The Register also featured the almighty Ashlee Vance who is now fetching coffee at the NY Times. He’s too good for us and it hurts.

We used Skype so the sound quality is good, minus an occasional hum which Ashlee always claimed was the actual computer running. In this episode we talk about ways open source companies can make money and how Dave doesn’t hate Microsoft that much any more.

For the technically interested: I used AudioHijack and Skype to record this sucker then brought the file into Garage Band to edit and add music. We made no attempt to compress the file or do anything fancy since we don’t know how many people will listen.

This site runs Wordpress and I used built-in components for pretty much everything. For some reason the  podPress plugin hates every URL I give it but I have a feeling it’s user error so we bailed out.

The song at the end is “Colony of Birchmen” by Mastodon and we don’t have express written permission to use it which is partly why this isn’t hosted by CNET. I’ll make some music when we reach our millionth download (so like a week from now?)