That’s Microsoft GC Brad Smith, to be more precise.
Mr. Smith spoke on Monday at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Mr. Smith’s lecture was on “”The Future of Software, the Internet, and Innovation.”
The event was blogged by John Palfrey, a Lecturer on Law at HLS, and Executive Director of the Berkman Center.
According to Mr. Palfrey, the MSFT GC spoke on such topics as innovation, consumer confidence and industry collaboration. On this latter topic, Mr. Smith noted that:
Co-opetition, is the new watchword. Firms should still differentiate themselves, but should also find ways to collaborate. […] He sees a bridge that will be built between the open source and proprietary software development communities — both of which, he says, are here to say.
Co-opetition. That’s a new one to me. Here’s one definition and there’s even a book of the same name.
It’s also interesting to see the mention of a “bridge” between open source and proprietary software. From Mr. Smith’s lecture, it’s clearly part of the Microsoft strategy. Attorney Larry Rosen sees some substance to these remarks.
But many more companies are apparently using open source software, they’re just not talking about it.
That means there’s more consumer confidence in open source software (Mr. Smith’s point #2). (Although some attorneys are predictably cautious). Many have known for some time that there is often more innovation in the open source community (Mr. Smith’s point #1).
The challenge for Microsoft is to build a bridge from its proprietary software to open source, and not have it turn out like this: