Despite all the snow that’s recently blanketed Germany, I was able to attend Enterprise Open Source Day in Nuremberg. Described by its organizers as an event for “open source enthusiasts and fans of the new, modern IT,” this year’s event focused on key trends including agile and mobile. These trends are of course not a surprise – my clients are always talking about how these issues affect their companies.
I attend many such events in Germany and one thing that always strikes me is how often I hear that companies still do not have an open source policy. (Stunning to me, actually!) Granted, events like Enterprise Open Source Day attract smaller companies, but it still surprises me, especially when you consider massive companies like SAP (based in Germany, of course) which have completely embraced open source by creating a very clear and concise governance policy. I am hopeful that the open source community in Germany will look to SAP as an excellent example of these types of policies.
Another observation sparked by this event: in addition to open source governance policies, many companies are only now beginning to think about using tools to monitor and manage their open source activities. But as the use of open source continues to accelerate in all business sectors, this will have to change, particularly for companies which need to scale the use and management of open source tools.
Now it’s onto the next important open source event in Germany, Embedded World. I’m curious to see if my observations from Enterprise Open Source Day hold true at Embedded World – look for an update about this event in the coming weeks.
