- global cooperative efforts to develop software
- Active X vs. Perl bugged him
- March '98 free software summit
- rms says "think free speech, not free beer" but we know what people will choose if you put it out there
- Eric Raymond proposed new term "open source"
- got national media attention

- open source Internet support software incl. BIND, sendmail, Apache

- thinks something missing
- Linux actually product of community of developers
- web defining  of apps

- friend wanted a computer to buy stuff from amazon.com
- e-business websites like Visicalc, spreadsheets in 80's
- killer app = amazon.com
- what is computer app?

- O'Reilly had first commercial website
- online publishing business solicited by many companies to use proprietary online documentation systems

- wanted single format Docbooks
- Viola toolkit - 1st graphical web browser

- '94 GNN Internet User's Guide and Catalog
- ~300 websites
- inpsired Mosaic

- interactions w/ Microsoft
- MS "great business model"
- MS Cinemania had context-sensitive search control panel
 
- MSN vs. web (web model won)
- same technology, web more open

- in late 70's hardware companies were main players, e.g. Digital, Prime
- early 80's IBM released specs of IBM PC as open standard, created open playing field
- book "Soul of a New Machine"
- now anybody can build PCs

- also new opportunities for software developers
- split between hardware and software companies
- later stagnation due to MS domination

- back to amazon
- low barriers to entry make possible Yahoo
- "paradigm" shift" represented by web (like PC revolution)

- Dell - hardware as commodity

- Red Hat trying to be like Dell
- assembler marketer, distributor of software

- get with program
1) suppliers of software tools to developers of "internet apps", e.g. Yahoo
- Yahoo, amazon changing interface dynamically
- quotes.yahoo.com - Perl program (regexp) to mactch news stories to stock ticker

2) build services
- Linux leads down wrong path - boxed software business model

- need better coordinating of pre-existing work in OS community
- like Activesurf with Red Hat

- ORA and Apache guy
- source exchange - OS developer exchange
- marketplace for OS services (e.g. drivers)

- outsourced project hosting services

- Apache group - good model
- no single leader
- collaboration concept

- uunet - first announced ISP
- direct outgrowth of OS movement
- supporting USENET, vehicle of hacker community

- main message: "Don't think in old frame, find a way for people to want to give you money"

-- End talk

Q&A

Q: Y2K
A: Some problems, not end of world

Q: OS vs. proprietary parallel between software and print industry
A: Pragmatic argument - make less money than by giving away books for free
- leave that up to author
- new O'Reilly book running Red Hat Linux - might be GPL'd
- want to maximize the amount of useful info provided
- but sendmail book author wants big advance
- people write software to solve their problem, rarely write documentation to solve their own problem
- most people want to maximize revenue

Q: MS conversion to web-centric view of world
A: Very, very smart, not terribly ethical
- learned from new paradigm
- Sun slogan "Network is the computer"
- use amazon as library for your program, i.e. apps sucking data from web
- MS grasping that
- new functionality in 98 Office is internet functionality from open source

- plugs new User Friendly book