GigaOm (Om Malik’s blog network) just launched a new open source software focused blog called Ostatic. The goal, Malik said today in an interview, is to track news around the world’s 150,000+ open source projects.
Malik quotes IDC, saying that 71% of the worlds developers have used open source software, and that 50% of organizations have some open source software in production. This is, of course, big business – MySQL was recently acquired by Sun for $1 billion, for example.
The Ostatic blog is really just a wrapper for additional services. The site will also have a directory with key information on each project, including alternatives and links to documentation, forums, mailings lists and the source code itself. Initial data in the director has been added from outsourced writers in India. Going forward, projects can send updates and new content to the site, or add it themselves.
The directory portion of Ostatic is competitive with a number of existing services, including SourceForge, which tracks 170,000 or so projects.
Ostatic also has a “questions and answers” area, similar to Yahoo Answers, where readers can ask questions and get responses from experts.
So is Ostatic built on open source? Yes, say Malik. The platform is built on open source Drupal, and licensed from Vox Holdings.
If you’re interested in open source, there are a number of other good blogs covering the topic as well: TheOpenForce, Tecosystems, CBR Open Source Weblog, rand($thoughts);, Mitchell’s Blog, Law & Life: Silicon Valley, and The Open Road.
It’s going to be difficult to position this as there have been quite a few successful OSS sites out there for over a decade now … ex: Slashdot.
and so it goes…let’s not be good at dozens of things instead of being really great at a couple. ::sigh:: I like OM (especially GigaOM) but I’m predicting its demise because of its growth strategy.
Gone by 2012 (GigaOM, hopefully not OM!)
The site private. Requires user/pass.
@#1 … i don’t see how this overlaps with Slashdot per se… i wouldn’t draw the conclusion that this will fail because Slashdot is established.
I read this in my reader and was excited, thought “Cool, Om! Good thinking.” and i see negative comments… i figured folks would dig this.. more than just a blog, more than just repository… both sectors are missing out on communication opportunities in OS and this will attempt to bridge the gap, I think it’s interesting…
“So is Ostatic built on open source? Yes, say Malik. ”
like hundreds of thousands of projects. like… techcrunch. like… does that matter?
@4 notice I didn’t say it would fail, I said it would be “difficult to position”. And I could be totally wrong, but that’s my gut reaction based on having been involved in OSS since ~’95. Since that time, quite a few sites have come and went, and, as in any other community, there is a large amount of cross-referencing (say for ex. TC vs. GigaOM vs. Techmeme, etc. and in OSS LWN, Slashdot, etc.). How any new site will be able to become yet another link in this chain, especially as it comes ~8 years after the Linux/OSS hype bubble, is difficult to see.
That being said, all the best to GigaOM. I’m definitely *not* against anything that provides FLOSS with more visibility.
Positioning at this point is very important, how can they compete with mighty Sourceforge, Gcode, DZone and others, well blog is different from repository, unless i find something worth for my utilization i wouldn’t use it as much.
http://www.yulop.com
It’s timely. I’ve covered several open source deals on my blog.
I do like the featured software and the linking open source and proprietary alternatives is nice. Right now it seems a little sparse, for example there isn’t a open source alternative listed for windows server 2003. There’s seems to be a huge amount of work still to be done. I’ve liked what Om’s done in the past so i’ll give him the benifit of the doubt. It wont make my primary news sources list right now but i’m open to what they have to offer.
A very nice idea and concept. I applaud any initiative to propagate open source projects. There are quite a bunch of excellent projects out there which do not get the popularity they deserve from lack of a good channels to educate users.
I’ve started to write about it as well and I can see the interest around this topic is rising quite a bit.
I don’t think they are competing with code hosts like sourceforge – I think the angle is to increase general awareness and promote projects in a way that hasn’t been done before. Good Luck Om!
Took a look …gigantic database…definitely the largest iv seen…will be interesting to see how things take shape
I don’t see how this is going to be useful.SourceForge already has most of the projects listed and hosted so why would i need to come here to get information on OpenSource???
you can compare software side by side – you can’t do that on sourceforge, and you can compare software you have to pay for with open source as well
“71% of the worlds developers have used open source software”
What?!? Are the other 29% are COBOL developers from 1975 cryogenically frozen in an underground government bunker as part of a cyberwarfare defense plan?
Hah – C# developers, VBasic developers? Probably “currently using” OSS is what it should say. And even that is LOW! OS can be a bitch to work with at times, given the lack of documentation and automation… Anything that would make it easier can only help…
I wonder how many people tried OS and got frustrated… Let’s see how much help Giga can provide… A bold move, nonetheless. A ‘CrunchBase’ for Software – nice! And, community powered? Even better!
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you can compare software side by side – you can’t do that on sourceforge, and you can compare software you have to pay for with open source as well
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Gil, that’s what http://www.mytestbox.com does …reviewing web software (open source or not, standalone applications or as a service) and compare to other from the same category.
I just launched it three weeks ago…and I do hope people (developers) will get involved (and why not? the investors)…I intend to develop it further.
Its and ok idea but how is the directory different from http://sourceforge.net/ project pages? I guess hes seen a niche that none of the other big Tech blog networks are not using. so my question is OpenCrunch.com next then? :p
I don’t think Om gets enough credit for pushing outside the boundaries of normal tech blogging areas. He has some good blogs. I think he bailed on the gaming one to early but hiring wagner was his only mistake.
www. i-guide .ro
www. i-guide .ro
Glad to see Om is back in action and innovating. Open source is no longer a techie-only domain and definitely warrants its own offering instead of just being another post on a blog. That being said, there are others like weblogsinc, o’reilly, ohloh, etc. who have been dabbling in this for some time but neither packs the same punch that Om brings to the blogosphere.
on Om’s new blog: http://www.josh...ource-blog.html
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Hey, thanks for bringing this to notice. OpenSource Crunch is a really cool initiative
Hey all you open source commentators ! You can become a writer for open Source Crunch (www.opensourcecrunch.com). Please visit http://www.open...30;..ation.html
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