The bubble and subsequent crash in Information Technology, as we place it in the long term context of this young industry, will be recorded in history as a normal (and possibly expected) growth phase all industries inevitably go through. As a recent special report in The Economist explained it, our industry is maturing, moving from the "installation" phase to the "deployment" phase where mass adoption occurs. The next ten years will be the "golden age" of technology where the focus will be on applications and services, rather than the technology differentiators themselves. Profits will be attained by those that drive low prices and achieve volume adoption, rather than pure specialization. We will see widespread adoption of standards, and even commoditization of the technology stack.

This keynote covers the economic impact of Open Source Software (OSS) and its benefits of no vendor lock-ins, significant cost savings, shift of IT spend from infrastructure to applications, and open standards based architecture. Lane also discuss about where OSS has impacted today, where it will reach in next 5 years, steps to accelerate its adoption and to exploit it to the fullest extent.

[Full title: "The Macro-Economic Impact of Open Source Software." This keynote presentation was recorded at the Open Source Business Conference 2004 held in San Francisco, CA. A PDF of this presentation's graphics is available. See the complete list of OSBC 2004 presentations on IT Conversations.]