Delve Deeper into Open Source with two Exclusive Workshops

Pre-Conference Workshop 10th March 2008

Timings

09.30 Registration

10.00 Start: The Economics of Open Source

11.30 Coffee Break

11.45 Session Two: Open Source Licensing 101

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Session Three: The Brave New World of Mobile Linux

15.00 Coffee Break

15.15 Session Four: Java and Wild West of Open Source

16.30 Round table discussion

17.00 Close

Crash Course: a 360 Degree Analysis of Mobile Open Source Economics, Licensing, Linux, Android, Java, Browsers and Beyond

Objectives

Open Source is one of the most misunderstood topics in the mobile industry, yet one which has already created commercial disruptions. Google’s Android, the WebKit browser core and Sun’s Java open source strategy have created ripples that have displaced the industry status quo. Companies are now evaluating their strategy in this new brave world, whether it’s Linux, Java or open source licensing. To successfully navigate in this changing commercial environment, companies must develop a solid understanding of the economics and licensing issues behind open source, as well as become familiar with the landscape of linux-based platforms, Java, browsers and beyond.

This workshop is designed as an intense, one-day crash course offering a 360 degree analysis around every facet of mobile open source. The workshop offers unprecedented insight across all aspects of open source, based on over 40 interviews with mobile industry executives. Workshop leader, Andreas Constantinou will clearly explain the foundation and economics of open source, the intricacies of licensing and copyleft issues, the positioning of Linux vendors and commercial deployments as well as analyse the numerous efforts beyond Linux in the ‘wild west’ of mobile open source. The workshop is a comprehensive, well rounded review of key matters in mobile open source that will help you make the best choices for your project or organization.

Who will benefit?

The day will benefit all professionals using or considering use of open source solutions; including CEOs, CTOs, CMOs, product managers, architects and developers.

Workshop Leaders

Andreas Constantinou

Andreas Constantinou is both a strategist and mobile technology expert. He is the founder of VisionMobile, a market know-how firm delivering sector analysis on the handset ecosystem, open source and mobile service domains. Andreas is also the author of Informa’s strategic report on Open Source in Mobile.

Andreas has eight years experience in research, development and strategy in wireless. He specialises in mobile hands¬ets, open source, mobile software market, device management and operator strategy. Andreas has worked on several product and marketing strategy projects for clients including France Telecom,T-Mobile, OMTP,Teleca, Red Bend, Abaxia and Trolltech, and authored numerous research reports for analyst firms Informa, Ovum and ARCchart. He specialises in providing intelligence on the mobile vendor landscape, analysing market dynamics and identifying mobile industry trends. When not hoping on planes, Andreas spends his time between Athens and London.

Andreas is invited regularly at international telecoms conferences as a speaker and chairman. He serves at the board of advisors at The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), a swedish UI technology company. He is also a monthly columnist for two telecoms print magazines, ‘InfoCom’ and ‘Mobile Telephony’. Andreas holds a Ph.D. in Image & Video Compression from the University of Bristol, UK.

Agenda

Session One. The Economics of Open Source

• What on earth is open source? (distilling the essence from the F.U.D.)
• Open source vs free software: history, linguistics and politics
• The five phases of maturity for open source software ecosystems
• Business models: four ways to make money from open source
• Success stories: case studies of the short head and statistics of the long tail
• Drivers and culture of the open source developers
• Corporate citizenship in open source projects. Do’s and Don't's

Session Two. Open Source Licensing 101

• Open Source Software licensing – what is it ?
• Patents, warranties and obligations of open source licenses
• An analysis of GPL2: motivations and obligations
• Differences between GPLv2 and GPLv3; derivatives, patents
• A review of copyleft licenses: Mozilla, Eclipse and CDDL
• A review of non-copyleft licenses: Apache, BSD and MIT
• Licensing pitfalls and how to avoid them; best practices
• Reasons to license and use open source software

Session Three. The Brave New World of Mobile Linux

• Linux: desktop vs mobile, evolution vs intelligent design
• The value of Linux to the mobile industry – benefits and challenges
• Why (almost) no one cares about the openness of Linux.
• The fragmentation nightmare of mobile Linux
• Linux for mass market phones: architectures and commercial efforts
• Manufacturer and Operator strategies
• Google’s Android: an analysis of the software, its licensing, developer program and the implications to the industry
• Application development on Linux: what it means to developers
• Standards bodies 2.0: analysis and comparative review of OHA, LiMo, LiPS, GMAE.

Session Four. Java and Wild West of Open Source

• A review of open source operating systems beyond Linux
• What open source means for Sun’s mobile Java: technology, licensing implications and the resulting minimal industry impact.
• Analysing Motorola’s MIDP 3 project; contrasting with Sun's Java strategy
• Nokia's S60 WebKit: a major disruption to industry and the demise of the browser heavyweights
• Microsoft’s Shared Source Licensing: an umbrella effort
• Eclipse, a model open source community
• Funambol: a tightrope walker
• Open source hardware: implications and applications
• BT project Firebird: open source in mobile networks
• Open source SIP: a threat to IMS?

Conclusions

• Key takeways and learnings; how to get involved in open source
• Forecasts for Linux and Java handset penetration
• Obstacles to overcome and opportunities to explore in open source

Post-Conference Workshop Thursday 13th March 2008

Timings

09.30 Registration

10.00 Start of Workshop

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Session Two

16.30 Round table discussion

17.00 Close

Legal Issues: What's Unique About Mobile?

Objectives

Open source software is already sufficiently ubiquitous that companies everywhere are comfortable accepting and using it for their businesses. Those legal issues are generally well-understood. But now the prospect is that open source software will be an ever-larger component of mobile devices, distributed in the hundreds of millions worldwide, and everyone will be free to copy, modify and re-distribute that software. Are there unique legal issues that affect this technology and this market?

This workshop will bring together a group of open source community experts and lawyers to lead group discussions about these and other legal topics that will affect the deployment of open source in mobile:

Licensing and distributing commercial products for open source mobile platforms.

• Control over modification: The conflict between users’ freedom to modify and the networks' need for stability.
• Open and closed content and the interaction of digital rights management with mobile open source software.
• Open and proprietary standards for communications in an open source mobile world.
• How do open source licenses deal with patents in this heavily-patented minefield?
• Contributing to open source projects: Can we work together while keeping our private intellectual property separate?

This workshop is coordinated by Lawrence Rosen, an attorney and technologist who has long been involved in the open source community. He is founding partner of Rosenlaw & Einschlag (www.rosenlaw.com), and he represents and advises many software companies and open source projects.