Keynote
Adaptation and Diffusion of the Open Source Model: Is it Extreme Collaboration?
9 May 2006
9:15 - 10:45
Presenter: Siobhán O'Mahony, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
While open source software is making inroads into areas that were once the sole terrain of proprietary vendors, the maturation of the open source model is having yet a greater effect on the industry - the more widely disseminated effects may be felt in the adaptation and diffusion of the open source development model, not only to software development, but also to other forms of collaborative content and knowledge production. In her keynote presentation, Siobhán O'Mahony will outline the social, technical, and legal aspects of the open source development model and reveal how they are adapted and recombined with more traditional approaches of collaboration to form new hybrids. While the lessons of corporate approaches to fostering community-created content are still being learned, Dr. O'Mahony reports on some strategies that have proven successful - critical information for organizations pondering how to build or manage their own communities, be they internal or external to the firm. With this insight, you'll be able to determine if an internal open source model might be right for your organization, or if participating in a cross-industry open source project, for example, might work within your governance structure.
Keynote Sessions
- The Broadband Explosion
- From SLAs to Patents: How to Avoid IT-related Litigation and Focus on What Counts!
- Open Source and Collaboration
- Wiki, Software, and the Changing Nature of Work
- Roadmapping
- Emerging Technologies: Which Will Form the Foundation for Future IT Advances?
- Summit 2006: Themes and Implications

