As enterprise use of open source software continues to expand, companies are increasingly aware of the importance of open source governance. If you're interested in learning about the essentials required for an effective open source governance process, be sure to sign up for our next webinar, "Ten Key Elements of Effective Open Source Governance in the Enterprise," which will be held on Wednesday, June 17 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern.

In this webinar, Kim Weins of OpenLogic and Greg Olsen of Olliance Group will discuss the ten essential elements for creating and maintaining an effective open source governance program in the enterprise. Topics to be covered include:

• Defining and implementing enterprise open source policies
• Securing support within the organization
• Taking inventory of open source software usage
• Managing requests and approvals for open source
• Ensuring ongoing compliance through auditing and reporting

Space is limited, so reserve your spot today for this informative session.

Wikipedia defines application lifecycle management (ALM) as "the marriage of business management to software engineering made possible by tools that facilitate and integrate requirements management, architecture, coding, testing, tracking, and release management." Source control management (SCM) tools are a key component of the ALM process, and developers today have many good open source options when it comes to selecting SCM tools.

We're hosting a webinar on April 28 in which we'll compare and contrast some of the most popular open source tools for SCM, including Bazaar, CVS, Git, Mercurial, and Subversion. Brad Reeves, Senior Content Engineer at OpenLogic, will examine the features included with popular open source SCM tools and discuss which tools best interface with other commonly used ALM applications.

Other topics covered to be covered this webinar include:

• Which open source SCM tools are best at branching, merging, and tagging
• Client/server vs. single repository SCM tools
• Peer-to-peer vs. distributed system SCM tools
• How the leading open source SCM tools compare to commercial alternatives

Whether you're evaluating open source SCM tools for use in your software engineering process or simply want to stay abreast of new trends, please be sure to join us on Tuesday, April 28 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern.

If you're interested in learning about the features and benefits of the top open source application development frameworks, you won't want to miss our next technical webinar—“A Comparison of Open Source Application Development Frameworks for the Enterprise.” This webinar will be held on Thursday, March 12 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern, and as usual the recording and slides will be available for download after the event.

In this webinar Kelby Zorgdrager, President of DevelopIntelligence, will join us to provide a comparison of key attributes for the leading open source application development frameworks including MyFaces, SEAM, Spring, Struts, and Tapestry. Attendees will also gain insights on how open source frameworks can be leveraged to rapidly build extraordinary web applications.

By attending this webinar you'll learn about:

• Key differences amongst the leading open source application development frameworks
• Other frameworks on the rise, and why they're gaining market share
• Selecting the right open source framework for a development environment
• Creating web applications more productively and elegantly

Whether you're just getting started with open source frameworks or simply want to stay abreast of new trends, please be sure to join us on March 12 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern.

One of the most popular categories of open source software is undoubtedly application servers. JBoss, Geronimo, and Tomcat are practically household names to anyone with even a passing familiarity with open source. But like any software package, every open source application server comes with its own pros and cons. Selecting the right open source application server for your environment requires detailed functional evaluations and important technology decisions on topics like EJB2 compatibility and OSGi. Further complicating the selection process is the recent release of the SpringSource dm Server, which abandons the EJB world altogether.

With this ever-shifting landscape, it's important to stay abreast of the latest developments and ensure that your organization is using the open source application servers that best suit your current and future needs and initiatives. Get a leg up on this important topic by attending our next technical webinar, “A Comparison of Open Source Application Servers for the Enterprise,” which will be held on Thursday, December 11.

Presented by Rod Cope, our CTO and Founder, and Veljko Krunic, our Senior Consultant, this webinar will compare JBoss, Glassfish, Geronimo, Tomcat, and the new SpringSource dm Server. In addition to core features and reliability, Rod and Veljko will discuss:

• EJB3 vs. Spring
• Spring on a dm Server vs. J2EE/JEE server
• OSGi
• EJB 2 compatibility

If you're currently evaluating application servers, plan to begin an evaluation in the near future, or simply want to stay abreast of new trends in open source application servers, please be sure to join us on December 11 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern.

And don't forget — the webinar library on our corporate website offers free downloads of the slides and recordings from all previous OpenLogic webinars, including “A Comparison of Open Source Reporting Tools for the Enterprise” and “A Comparison of Open Source Scripting Languages for the JVM.”

A little over a week ago we launched an updated version of the OpenLogic corporate website. The basic page layout is largely the same, but there are some significant changes to the content, organization, and style.

First and foremost, we refocused the content to better reflect our primary open source solutions—commercial-grade support for open source, open source governance, and open source provisioning. We also updated information on our open source services and OpenLogic Exchange (OLEX), our Software-as-a-Service platform for comprehensive sourcing and governance of open source software in the enterprise. Organizational improvements allow visitors to browse our offerings by solution type or by product name, and our library of webinars and other downloads is now easier to navigate.

From a style standpoint we tried to give the site a softer, more “web 2.0” look and feel without going through a start-from-scratch redesign. We tackled this by rounding off hard edges and adding subtle gradients to sidebars, and we also increased the page width to improve readability and get more content above the fold.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the redesign.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

The economic downturn is having an impact on businesses large and small in every sector of the economy, and everyone is looking to reduce expenses and maximize the value of existing infrastructure. Migrating to open source software is one of the best ways to achieve these goals, so we’re offering a free webinar to help guide enterprises looking to get started with or expand usage of open source: “Navigating the Economic Downturn: Strategies for Cutting Costs with Open Source.” This webinar will be held on Wednesday, October 29 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern. A recording of the webinar as well as the slides will be available for download from the OpenLogic webinar library after the event.

In this webinar we’ll discuss how enterprises can leverage open source solutions to reduce IT expenses and preserve infrastructure investments while accelerating innovation. Topics to be covered include:

• Overview of best practices for bringing open source into the enterprise
• Key areas to consider for migrating from proprietary to open source solutions
• How to project and measure the ROI of migrating to open source

Whether you’re already using open source software or just beginning to evaluate open source alternatives that may be able to help you cut costs, please be sure to join us on October 29 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern.

Our last webinar—"A Comparison of Open Source Reporting Tools for the Enterprise"—drew a huge amount of interest, so we decided to continue the trend with another technical webinar: "A Comparison of Open Source Scripting Languages for the JVM" presented by Rod Cope, CTO and Founder of OpenLogic. This webinar will be held on September 23 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern, and of course the recording and slides will be available for download after the event.

In this webinar Rod will discuss scripting languages for the JVM like Groovy, JRuby, and Jython, which have become popular alternatives to programming languages like Java, C#, and C++ as well as traditional scripting languages like Ruby, Python, Perl, and PHP. Rod will provide a comparison of key attributes for the most popular scripting languages for the JVM, including:

• Which languages are easiest (and hardest) to learn?
• What types of development are best suited to each language?
• How do the top languages compare in terms of ease of use?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of each language?
• Which open source frameworks and other packages work best with each language?

If you're interested in learning a new scripting language to enhance or replace your Java development, or if you want to know which language is best suited to a particular type of development, please be sure to join us on September 23 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern.

Enterprises that are new to open source software often get started with databases, web and application servers, and scripting languages, but open source reporting tools have become increasingly popular in the enterprise over the past few years. Applications like Jasper, Pentaho, and BIRT are now widely used by enterprises, and each comes with unique strengths and weaknesses.

As part of our ongoing series of technical webinars, OpenLogic is hosting a webinar on August 12 entitled, “A Comparison of Open Source Reporting Tools for the Enterprise.” Rod Cope, Founder and CTO of OpenLogic, will provide an in-depth comparison across over 15 key attributes for the most popular open source reporting tools, including:

• How do the top reporting tools compare in terms of overall functionality?
• What are the differences in web UI and ease of use?
• Which security features are included with each reporting tool?
• What are the deployment options?

Whether you’re new to open source reporting tools or want a refresher on some of the latest features, please be sure to join us on August 12 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern.

Also, we’re currently working on the schedule for future technical webinars, so if you’d like to suggest a topic please leave a comment or send me an email.

Everyone knows about the baggage fees many airlines now charge in an effort to help stem their massive financial losses, but Jeremy Zawodny suggests airlines take it a step further by pricing tickets based on the combined weight of the passenger and his or her baggage. This strikes me as misguided on several levels.

While nobody enjoys getting a seat next to a fellow passenger who struggles to fit between the armrests, a weight-based model would penalize those of us who happen to be tall. My weight is average for my height, but I’m sure I carry a few more pounds than the average person who’s a foot shorter. Why should I have to pay more simply because my genes made me tall? I feel penalized enough every time I have to wedge my long legs into the ever-decreasing amount of leg room allocated for coach-class passenger seats.

Further complicating Jeremy’s suggestion is the thought of adding passenger weigh-ins to the already time-consuming check in process. Just imagine the long line of impatient, disaffected travelers all staring as you glumly step onto the scale, hoping that the light breakfast you took this morning will ensure there’s no increase to the price of your ticket. And wouldn’t you feel awful every time a disapproving ticketing agent notes someone’s weight—and the corresponding price hike—just a little too loudly? I can’t imagine this would boost the already-dismal customer satisfaction ratings airlines earn these days.

I don’t necessarily disagree that baggage weight should be part of the pricing equation, but last time I checked airlines already charge for excess weight. Every checked bag is allowed to weigh up to 50 lbs, and heavier bags result in extra fees. I think that’s incentive enough to pack lightly, especially now that some airlines charge just to check a bag in the first place.

There’s no doubt that the airline industry is in trouble, but more complicated systems of fees and add-ons aren’t going to save their budgets or reputations.

Yesterday Sandro Groganz wrote about his experience helping a customer get started with blogging to promote their open source products, and towards the end of the post he offers some good tips for common questions companies have as they enter the world of blogging. While I agree with Sandro that organizations should adhere to some basic blogging guidelines—like ensuring that different bloggers “are in line with the main marketing message(s)”—I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules around things like how often to post and whether to respond to comments via additional comments or a new post. The best rule of thumb is to do what feels right to the individual blogger and fits with the corporate culture. Bloggers in an organization often handle some of the blogging details a little differently, and that’s ok.

I’m reminded of a story I heard on NPR a year or two ago about how the social norms of email communication are still evolving. For example, if you email a question to a colleague and receive an answer in return, should you respond with another email just to say thanks? In other words, when does the email conversation end? Ask a few different people, and you’re likely to get a few different answers. The NPR piece noted that it took many, many years for society as a whole to accept norms for telephone conversations—like answering the phone with “hello” rather than “ahoy” (apparently there was quite a debate in the early years of the phone). So it may be unreasonable to expect similar conventions for email communication to be widely accepted at this point in history, and I think blogs are in a similar evolving state.

For individuals and organizations new to the world of blogging, I highly recommend Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. This book presents a number of different approaches to blogging taken by various individuals and companies, and the general conclusion (at least as I remember it) is that there’s no right way or wrong way to blog. Just be yourself, be honest and respectful to others, have fun, and understand that each time you blog you’re entering a conversation with readers from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. You can make up the rest as you go along, and odds are you’ll find yourself blogging more frequently as you get comfortable with the process and start seeing the benefits that blogging can deliver to your company.