Don Marti

Tue 04 Aug 2009 10:36:50 AM PDT

OpenSource World: Keynote from r0ml

It's official: we have Robert "r0ml" Lefkowitz as a keynoter at OpenSource World, formerly LinuxWorld.

(press release, in which we talk press-release-ese about it)

Finally, we get to hear about the missing angle for open source in IT departments. When you drag peer production code and ideas into the Corporate IT Department, can you actually MAKE NEW STUFF with it, or is open source just a snoozy cheaper/more reliable way to do the same old IT projects you were going to do anyway?

r0ml's "Deli" concept is a major step toward making the IT department work like a business—and finally start to pull its weight again in a world where any user can get better-than-Enterprise IT, cheaper and faster, from 37 Signals or somebody like that.

I heard r0ml do the "Deli" talk at OSBC, and it got a lot of great comments and questions. From a user: "When we need something that works we try to avoid the IT department finding out about it." From an IT manager: "If we don't provide services like this [the deli] they're going to work around it."

Hey, between the two community day events on the 11th, "Deli" as a keynote, and the user talks in the main conference, I'm going to have to say that the users have successfuly taken over this event. See you there. (registration link, free to qualified users, this means you.)