Tarus Balog has been involved in managing communications networks professionally since 1988, and unprofessionally since 1978 when he got his first computer - a TRS-80 from Radio Shack. Having worked as a network management consultant for many years, he was constantly frustrated in the lack of flexibility involved in commercial solutions such as OpenView and Tivoli, as well as shocked by their high prices. Looking for a better solution, he turned to open source and joined the OpenNMS project in 2001 and become the principal administrator of the project in 2002. Since then he has managed not only to make a living working with free software, but the OpenNMS Group, the services company behind the project, has thrived, and currently has customers in 27 countries.

Presentations

22x

MapLibre: An Introduction to Its Use and Its Community

The ability to provide useful maps is a key feature for many applications, but using commercial services like Google Maps or Mapquest can be expensive and limiting. MapLibre provides a robust and flexible mapping library for both web use (using Typescript) and native mobile operating systems (using C++ and wrappers) and it is completely open source. The MapLibre community is also very active and transparent, insuring that the project will continue and grow in the future,

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20x

Revisiting Open Source Business Models

Back in 2010 at SCaLE 8x, I presented a keynote on how to create a business around open source software. A lot has changed in 13 years. Open source is now ubiquitous and demand for open source solutions and open source skillsets has never been greater. This has created a number of new opportunities to commercialize open source, as well as creating new challenges. This presentation will explore modern open source revenue models and their various benefits and pitfalls, from both the point of view of the project as well as its users.

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13x

Open Source Is Dead - And This May Be a Good Thing(tm)

Open source software has become a dominant player in technology today. From cloud computing to web applications to mobile devices, open source is the de facto standard. But it is not the realization of the free software dream of "free software for everyone". There is little open source on the desktop. Most applications are still developed under a commercial process license, and the biggest players in open source have names like Microsoft, Google, and Paypal. However, this may turn out to be a good thing in the long run as the next generation of coders becomes comfortable with the model.

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