Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Larry Ellison and the business of social production

More insightful analysis from Nicholas Carr; read the full post. 

Are there economic or other barriers that prevent competitors from capitalizing on the investments of the open-source companies?

We're about to get a lot closer to an answer to that question, thanks to that great clarifying force in the technology business, Larry Ellison.

I also find it fascinating that Larry Ellison gets credit (in BusinessWeek) for a "ruthless and brilliant act of capitalism" while Microsoft executives, openly speculating about similar issues in the past, got attacked for comparing open source to communism.  In any case: the theory, hype, and reality of enterprise open source are now being tested in new and interesting ways.

Recommended (albeit somewhat dated) reading in this context: The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison -- it's a book with a dumb title, but it's useful background/early history on Ellison and Oracle.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Larry Ellison and the business of social production