Sooner or later, you may get a call from the Help Desk.
The success of many open source software applications has led many companies to integrate them into their technological infrastructure. One definition of open source is available here; many believe that the concept of collaborative improvement behind open source software leads to more innovation and quicker adoption of useful software tools.
Computerworld magazine has an article called “Ten things your lawyers need to know about open-source.” It’s a good overview and will at least let you understand your friendly IT colleague if they raise the issue.
Two other open source resources may also help: one on contract drafting and another from Slashdot.
Open Source even has its own law center.
You are reading words that were processed the excellent open source weblog publishing platform WordPress. It’s great to use and I support it as well.
And this just in… While not technically about open source, eBay’s acquisition today of Internet-telephony application provider Skype for $2.6 billion is bound to increase interest in open source and free applications that can drive profitable businesses. My quick $.02 on this is that Skype is cashing out at the top, and this is a defensive move by eBay given Google’s new Talk service (which is based on the open source Jabber) and reports that Google may offer a payment service to take on eBay’s PayPal.
The company who gets you to login first each day wins. That’s the reason for the free Gmail. And why Yahoo may take a hard look at Gizmo.