First the naysayers of open source software said, "Open source developers can't make a game." Then they did. Next those naysayers said, "They can't make something serious like compilers or development tools," and they did it again. Lately, the naysayers have been saying that open source sevelopers could never make high-end, corporate-level applications. Yet, as Larry Augustin, CEO, Medsphere Systems Corporation points out, open source developers are already doing just that.

The next wave of open source developers have developed customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic health record (EHR) and even PBX software that rivals the offerings of large software companies such as Oracle, Seibel and SAP. The current enterprise software model is broken which is providing great opportunities for open source software developers. By giving away their base software without large, up-front licensing fees, open source developers can let their customers come to them instead of investing large amounts of cash in sales and marketing. Furthermore, they can fill the needs of smaller companies that are usually priced out of commercial software offerings.

Open source developers are always looking for the next big challenge and, having proven themselves with games, development tools and even operating systems, enterprise software is their latest target. Despite the naysayers, open source developers have shown that no market is free of their influence.

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Larry Augustin is CEO of Medsphere, an open source software company that delivers a sophisticated healthcare information system. Prior to Medsphere, he was a partner at venture capital firm Azure Capital Partners where he specialized in software and systems investments, including Linux and Open Source businesses. Prior to Azure, he founded VA Linux Systems, now VA Software, where he served as CEO until August 2002. At VA he launched SourceForge.net, and combined SourceForge.net with Slashdot, Freshmeat, and other Internet sites to form the Open Source Development Network (OSDN). He is currently of the board of directors of VA Software, the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), the Free Standards Group (FSG), and Linux International (LI). Mr. Augustin has a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and MSEE and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Resources:

• Larry Augustin's keynote presentation (PDF)
• MedSphere

This program is from the Open Source Business Conference 2005 series.

For Team ITC:

• Description editor: Douglas E. Welch
• Post-production audio engineer: Gardner Campbell