News

OW2 launches China WebSite

A key milestone in the development of the OW2 Community and open source in China.
OW2 China website is at www.ow2.org.cn


Paris, France, and Changsha, China– The OW2 Consortium, an independent industry community dedicated to developing open source middleware today announced the launch of its Chinese web platform.

OW2 members, including leading IT research institutes in China such as Peking University, Academy of Science, Beihang University and National University of Defense Technology have joined their trengths in an effort sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to further ooperation between China and Europe in the open source middleware technologies. The launch of he OW2 Chinese site marks the first key milestone of this joint effort.

 

We are proud to be launching the OW2 Chinese web platform which shows our commitment to develop the open source community in China. Moreover, this platform will be an essential tool in integrating China into the global open source community.” say Professor WANG Huaimin, of NUDT and lead of OW2's China Local Chapter.

“Launching the OW2 platform in Chinese is an important milestone in the development of our global community,” says OW2 CEO Cedric Thomas, “it will help the OW2 community grow faster in China. we look forward to welcoming more Universities, Software Vendors, Systems Integrators, End-Users and Individual developers in the OW2 community.”

The platform will soon provide a mirror of the OW2 code base freely accessible by Chinese developers. Beside allowing Chinese developers to easily download open source middleware, OW2 offers them a fully-fledged infrastructure and a mature governance framework to grow their open source projects in a global community.

The platform is hosted by OW2 Strategic Member CVIC-SE in Changsha and is run by Chinese members of the Management Office, a global team running the day-to-day operations of the consortium.


OW2 Members participating in the China Local Chapter include world-class universities such as Peking University, Beihang University, Institute of Software-Chinese Academy of Science, National university of Defense Technology, prominent IT companies such as CVIC-SE, TongTech and intervision and DOCSC an open source community from the north of China.

About OW2


Founded in January 2007 as a result of the merger of ObjectWeb and OrientWare communities, OW2 is an independent industry consortium dedicated to developing open source code middleware and to fostering a vibrant community and business ecosystem. Building on the legacy of ObjectWeb and orientWare, OW2 federates more than one hundred organizations and 6000 IT Professionals in europe, Asia and the Americas. .As a leading global open-source organization, OW2 aims to bring together grassroots communities across all continents through Local Chapters. To find out more about OW2, visit www.ow2.org and www.ow2.org.cn

Apache Meet Up Beijing 2008

Participate in Apache Meet Up and BarCamp Beijing

Join Apache in creating Apache Meet Up Beijing on Friday, 5 December. We're inviting local open source developers to share their skills and knowledge during the meet-up. Two hours of the day will be dedicated to 20 minute sessions presented by local open source experts. If you would like to participate, please send us your idea.

 

Registration: http://us.apachecon.com/c/accn2008/  

 

BarCamp Beijing 2008 will be held Saturday, 6 December at Intel's Beijing Offices.

Join the Apache Software Foundation for a special Beijing Meet Up on Friday, 5 December.

What is BarCamp?

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

BarCamp begins with a brainstorming session during which the attendees determine the schedule for the day. All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants in some way. BarCampers may prepare in advance, but should arrive early to get a slot on the agenda.

BarCamp is open to anyone and everyone. This unique un-conference format now runs regularly around the globe, created by local organizers. With its open format, BarCamp attracts a diverse crowd, from engineers to artists, writers to entrepreneurs, allowing cross discipline knowledge sharing. Sessions are encouraged to be hands-on, how-to, creation oriented with lively demos, discussions, and a focus on interaction. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

See also: BarCampBeijing2007, 

BarCampShanghai, BarCampVancouver

Venue

Intel China Research Center Ltd,

8F, Raycom Infotech Park A

No. 2, Kexueyuan South Road,

Zhong Guan Cun, Haidian District

Beijing, China 100190

北京市海淀区中关村科学院南路2号融科资讯中心A座Intel中国研究中心

Interview to Proactum

During the recent Beijing Open Source Camp, we met with senior executives of Proactum, an open source software company from Finland. The executives--Proactum chairman Anneli Koivunen, senior partner Jouko Hyppoen and senior advisor Mikko Puhakka--shared their ideas on open source. 

Please introduce yourselves and let us know why you created the company, Proactum. 
ANNELI KOIVUNEN: I have very wide experience in the infocomm technology (ICT) field and business management. I have also been working as a CEO of a listed company as well as a board member professional. One reason why Proactum was established was because of the different kind of work that Proactum's parent company was doing. The parent company did business consulting and project management, whereas Proactum was doing software development and software projects. Therefore, it was a natural move to establish a software and services company that clearly focuses on providing software and services to the public sector and business markets. At the same time, I saw it as an opportunity to expand the ownership and management structure of Proactum and become a much stronger player in the market. 

JOUKO HYPPOEN: I totally agree. I came on board when I saw there was room for this type of a company in the market. In addition, the visions and strategy of Proactum matched with my thoughts well. (Jouko has been developing Proactum from its early days, by developing a professional project management culture and customer project skills to the company.) 

What are the Proactum's main goals? What is its core value for customers? 
KOIVUNEN: Proactum is focused to provide top quality enterprise open source software and services to its customers. The core value is that it can be a very competitive alternative to those companies that are providing solutions around proprietary software. We have seen this as a huge opportunity, since in Europe--and we believe soon in Asia-- public and private sector organizations are using more and more open source software in their business applications. This has been proven by various studies and also in practice. 

HYPPOEN: The core value, however, is high quality and professional services to customers, who are happy to see there is a new high quality and fast player in the market. Proactum can give a competitive alternative and fresh and innovative view, combined with professional project management skills and top open source products. 

What is the philosophy behind the successful Proactum Platform? 
HYPPOEN: Simply re-use what has already been done; let the customer get the benefits �and of course, apply the advanced technology and create a new way of thinking. 

MIKKO PUHAKKA: Simply, the era of open source has arrived for a number of reasons, such as cost, quality and control. We are already witnessing that in Europe and the United States, with Asia catching up fast. 

Proactum has acquired Quosis. Can you tell us a little more about that? 
KOIVUNEN: This was a strategic move. This way, Proactum could strengthen its open source and technical know-how while its service and business know-how were already in a very good shape. We also got highly skilled staff onboard, and also something that is now been developed towards Proactum Platform. After this acquisition, we were able to grow quickly into a position where we are now. We see this as a beginning of the path where we are going and as a part of our vision to be a big global player. 

PUHAKKA: Open source has already proven itself to be a competitive way of producing and distributing technologies, we now just need to add sound business practices on top of that. 

Amidst the weakening global economy, China is still growing faster than other countries. What's your view of the business opportunities for open source in China? 
HYPPOEN: Yes, that is true. The two-digit yearly growth of China's economy may be a one-digit growth in next couple years, but it is still fast. We believe we will see something similar to what has been happening in recent years in the European Union (E.U.)--the business opportunities will grow and the change in the way of thinking about software products and the services proposition will be seen in China just as it has happened in Europe and Finland. No doubt China will be in a very good shape, economically, and that the opportunity may also be seen there while the U.S. and E.U. economies will not grow. In addition, I find that both the Chinese and Finnish are hard working and fast-thinking people.