LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 

Microsoft mulling open-source strategy in SharePoint


By David Worthington
Email    print   
December 23, 2008 —  In an interview with SD Times, Sam Ramji, Microsoft's senior director of platform strategy, talked about how the company approaches open-source software. In particular, he talked about Microsoft's Open Source Software Lab intent to work with the SharePoint product team. Ramji elaborated on what open source from Microsoft means for SharePoint developers.

SD Times: We have been told that Microsoft’s Open Source Software Lab would like to begin collaborating with the SharePoint product team. Can you tell us more about that?
Sam Ramji: I think, first of all, that is a great example. SharePoint is a product that benefits from open source through the applications sitting on top of it. PHP applications like Moodle [an academic course management system that can integrate with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007] and Microsoft's SharePoint Learning Kit (a commercial product that we open-sourced and made non-commercial) are examples. We have heard the conversation internally about SharePoint as an example of a platform of great opportunity for open-source application strategy.

How can the open-source community know that Microsoft is truly supporting the principles of open source development vs. doing so as a matter of convenience? I.e., "How can we trust your motives?"
That is a great question that I am asked frequently. The process of building trust is one that develops over time, based on coherence between what a person and organization say and what they do. I've been very cautious to always talk about things we are doing, have done and have shipped.

One of the things we did this year is ship documentation on internal protocols for Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint and Office under a pretty liberal licensing scheme. We committed that any developer of any persuasion can go ahead and build implementations of any of those protocols.

We recognize that many developers are commercially minded, getting paid for time and material as consultants. We want to continue to enable that and tried to make that clear in a community promise around our interoperability principles.

Another set of protocols was announced in July and made available under the Open Specification Promise. Those ranged from .NET remoting to things like AppleTalk and IPv6. The purpose was to demonstrate through OSP that we declare peace across a wide range of industry protocols. We wanted to show that whether you are developing [in] open source or [commercially], that it is critical to have open IP for commonly adopted standards.

We were [writing] into agreements and public statements ways for developers to see that this is a development opportunity, and Microsoft is not a company that [they] have to worry about.




Related Search Term(s): open source, SharePoint, Windows, Microsoft


Share this link: http://sdt.bz/33133
 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Branching and merging: the heart of version control
Providers hold their own views of the landscape, but the Git SCM system is drawing looks from them all
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
Microsoft pivots toward business intelligence
The goal is to make business intelligence accessible "to the masses"
From the Editors: Node.js is unruly, but that’s where the fun is
The time to get involved with Node.js is now; Hadoop is about to break its own barriers
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter


Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
Loading




close
NEXT ARTICLE
Sam Ramji: Open source is burgeoning at Microsoft
Microsoft has asked its legal team to coordinate with product teams and software engineers to cultivate Microsoft's use and support of open-source technologies. It will also ramp up its involvement with the Apache Foundation and other open-source projects that advance its business and technology goals Read More...
 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?


 
blogs tab
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
02/03/2012 12:17 PM EST

Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
02/02/2012 08:26 AM EST

Ryan Dahl steps down
Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, steps back from his position as gatekeeper for the project.
02/01/2012 04:58 PM EST

Bloomberg opens its API
Bloomberg's APIs could lead to a future standard for accessing market data.
02/01/2012 04:41 PM EST

The case for piracy
In the aftermath of SOPA and PIPA, some copyright holders have begun to embrace piracy as inevitable...and even beneficial.
01/30/2012 02:39 PM EST

Tablet sales boom, but applications lag
The installed base of tablet computers and e-book readers is growing rapidly, but no killer app has yet emerged -- hint, hint.
01/28/2012 05:48 PM EST

 
Events calendar tab
Cloud Connect
2/13/2012 to 2/16/2012
Santa Clara
TechWeb

SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conf.
2/26/2012 to 2/29/2012
San Francisco
BZ Media

RSA Conf.
2/27/2012 to 3/2/2012
San Francisco
RSA

IBM Pulse Conf.
3/4/2012 to 3/7/2012
Las Vegas
IBM Tivoli

Game Developer Conf.
3/5/2012 to 3/9/2012
San Francisco
TechWeb