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Can the open source approach to software development promote transparency and remove FUD -- fear, uncertainty and doubt?
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TARRYTOWN, NY, November 29, 2006 – Open-Xchange, Inc. today posted another position paper intended to review the forces changing the market for information technology in general and collaborative solutions in specific. The well-known software analyst, Daniel Kusnetzky, who is now the Executive Vice President, Market Strategy, and Paul Sterne, CFO and General Manager of Americas of Open-Xchange Inc, write these position papers. This paper, “Open Source Transparency: The End of FUD” can be found on the Open-Xchange, Inc. website. http://www.open-xchange.com/EN/news/position.html
By requiring that source code is freely available to all, the open source movement has made transparency and peer review two of its guiding principles. Transparency undermines FUD because all users have the ability to see exactly how the software works. Transparency increases quality by subjecting all aspects of the code to constant peer review. Transparency and peer review negate FUD by shifting the debate to the objective “what is it” (or as Kant said “the thing itself”) from the subjective “who is it”.
About Open-Xchange Server
Open-Xchange Server 5 delivers twice the functionality of the typical collaboration server at half the price. It works with more browsers, PDA’s and rich clients. Unique features – such as Documail, the integration of document sharing and email, Smart Links, Smart Permissions, and Universal Access – make it the most productive collaboration tool on the market. Organizations use Open-Xchange Server’s GUI-based administration module featuring Tiered Entitlement to implement role-based user management.
Open-Xchange Server 5 supports the two leading Enterprise Linux distributions, Red Hat and SUSE and is available with the Collax Business Server. Innovative connectors, OXtenders, enhance customer flexibility by using open standard APIs to integrate existing IT infrastructures, or extend capabilities to mobile devices, fax servers, back-up utilities, email archiving tools and Samba administration tools.
Launched in August 2004, Open-Xchange’s open source project is licensed under the General Public License for the software program and the Creative Commons, Attribution, Noncommercial, ShareAlike or CC:by-nc-sa for the digital content or Web Access Add-on. Open-Xchange Server is ranked #4 out of 358 groupware projects on the freshmeat.net website, #1 in document repositories, #4 in handhelds, and the #163 most popular overall project, out of more than 40,000 listed projects. The Open-Xchange community website, http://www.open-xchange.org, is visited by more than 200,000 unique visitors each month. On average, each month, the community version of Open-Xchange Server is downloaded more than 6,000 times. Open-Xchange Server 5 was awarded Best Open Source Solution at LinuxWorld Expo. The readers of ServerWatch awarded Open-Xchange Server best Messaging and Collaboration Solution.
About Open-Xchange Inc.
Open-Xchange Inc. delivers Smart Collaboration™ by offering reliable and scalable messaging and advanced collaboration solutions. Open-Xchange products provide IT departments with open source alternatives for messaging and advanced collaboration resulting in architectural freedom. Open-Xchange’s unique technology, Smart Collaboration™, has been awarded the LinuxWorld’s Product Excellence Award, ServerWatch’s Product Excellent Award, and InfoWeek’s Server Product of the Year. Open-Xchange Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Tarrytown, NY, with research & development and operations in Olpe and Nuremberg, Germany. For more information, please visit www.open-xchange.com .
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