Grasp the Development Trend of Open Source to Promote the Development of Information Industry!

May 22-23, 2008, "2008 Open Source China and Open Source World " Summit and Round Table Conference were held by China OSS Promotion Union (COPU) in Guangzhou, China, which focusing on open source. There are more than 10 open-source community leaders, executives of IT transnational corporations, senior Chinese and foreign IT experts, open-source movement-related corporations, communities, institutions, research institutes, testing base, support agencies, representatives of mainstream users, and government officials, a total of more than 400 people world wide.

Zhao Bo, Vice Director-General of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ( MIIT ), made the first speech. He expressed the congratulations to the open source summit event, delivered the message from government to support China and global open-source movement. He also expressed government's full support for the fruitful work of COPU.

Zhang Jun, vice director of Guangdong Development and Reform Commission , the principal of Guangdong Linux application software coordination conference, introduced the work of Guangdong in promoting open-source software. In January 2008, nine departments under Guangdong government jointly issued the "Considerations of Guangdong Province on further promotion of Linux software applications " – to establish a support and service infrastructure to promote industry solutions built on Linux and open source.

Wang Yuexi, vice director of Guangzhou Municipal Information Office, said on his speech that he will collaborate with the government procurement unit to make sure the open-source software products as one of choice for government procurement; actively organize open-source software educations; cooperate with HK to hold open-source related training program and activities, which will be led by a leadership team to drive/promote HK/Guangdong industry open source applications.

Mr. Yang Haizhou, who is president of Guangdong Linux application software special committees and Guangdong Software Industry Association, on behalf of this meeting organizer expressed warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to the representatives and the experts.

Lu Shouqun, chairman of COPU, reported at the meeting about the theme of Chinese open-source movement development and application. He has the view that open standards has become a standard in the direction of one of ICT development. The open-source technology has gone to mature and open-source products have move toward stability; Open-source business model will become a mainstream mode. The open-source standards, laws, education and training, quality certification, testing and other support systems are being established and further improved; Open-source operating system, open-source middleware, open-source database, PHP programming language, Eclipse and other development tools, Firefox browser, and open-source and mixed source of technical architecture, open-source ecosystem construction has made great progress.

Ni Guangnan，Academician of China Academy of Engineering, considers that open-source software is already the world's software industry development trend. Open source software has penetrated into all fields, but also for China's industries is very helpful role. The development of open-source software has become the policy of many countries. China should vigorously promote open standards and open source software to promote China's software and information services sector development and promote the integration between information and industrialization.

Louis Suraze-Potts, the chairman of OpenOffice.org introduced the development of the OpenOffice.org community, evolution of OpenOffice version and the ODF standard. Louis in the report in particular highlighted the "information autonomy" concept, that is, only those with the information means of production, can have the information autonomy. Louis also brought forward that made through cooperation with Chinese universities to attract more students to participate in the open source community, and make contributions to the open source community. This is also a turning point of current China in the international open-source movement.

Wang Wenhan, general manager of Intel Asia-Pacific R & D Co., Ltd. ,introduced since 17 years ago Linux released, the work has done by Intel in open source area. Intel formed OTC and continuous cooperated with open-source communities. Intel OTC in China's technological strength is also quite powerful. Intel hope that we can cooperate together to promote the development of open-source industry.

LPI Chairman Jim lacey pointed out in the report that with the development of the Internet, many young people are using computers and networks. But they are not very clear with the open source technology which support network, and they do not know how to collaborate on open source technology and Innovation. The current open source is a successful area and will bring participants more opportunity. LPI cooperated with the global community, established the corresponding certification system and promote the development of open-source ecosystem. LPI certification promoting progress work better in Japan, while in China there are fewer participators. A general feedback is the issue of certification prices. With China's national conditions, LPI is increasing the proportion of the examination paper and cooperating with the relevant region and the relevant bodies to promote the development of Linux certification.

Dr. Chen Wei from CSIP introduced the open-source software maturity assessment project for the open-source software development characteristics and on how to ensure that the quality of open-source software. Through the results of this assessment project, you will be able to compare open-source software with commercial software or other open-source software projects from multi-directional, and eventually determine which open-source software to meet your needs.

Jeff Aaron Farr, director of Apache Software Foundation, in the report of "How to make contributions to the open source community? ", focus introduced "how to share, how to accept? As China's open-source software movement developed to the current period, this is the problem that we have to pay focus attention to. And to share and accept is the essence of open-source movement concept.

Simon Phipps, chief OSS officer of Sun Microsystems, do the "open source is to sail" report through video. He considered that in the 21st century, open-source software movement was driven by three forces: One is the fans activities, and the other is a commercial operation, the third is the government's support for open source applications. We should pay close attention to the proposed creative things. Open-source community itself is ready to accept the participation of organizations of different companies, to be prepared to see through all the different applications. The open source needs to further developing. The policies should indeed not only encourage the development of open-source community, but also to get all kinds of different cultures and skills together.

Inna Kuznetsova, IBM Director, Cross-IBM Linux Strategy and IBM Power Systems Strategy & Business Development, introduced what the next generation of Linux is. She said that some key points can be considered as IBM investment direction of the next generation Linux: green Linux projects, business-critical work load, desktop Linux, Linux solutions and practical technologies. Linux applications include ERP, CRM, BI and the important commercial application of environmental management. Financial management and insurance companies can also use Linux, and real-time applications. These are the new generation of Linux applications, and it would require high security and the scale of Linux. This is the trend of next generation Linux-based applications. She also spoke about how to promote the development of open-source ecosystem.

Mr.Lin Zhengdao, founder and CEO of Linpus, and the director of Hong Kong Linux Association, Mr.Jian Jinyuan said in their reports that as mobile phones, super-small laptops and other mobile Internet terminals there, this mobile device using open-source Linux as a platform OS has become a trend of IT industry. China, as the global PC manufacturing base and the largest consumer market, Linux has become one of the most important powers to promote Linux development all over the world. Therefore, the rise of open source software, not only bring opportunities for the development of China's software industry; popularization of open-source software thinking and open source in China is also gradually become one of the important driving force of world's open-source software trend.

Wang Minghua , vice president of Red Flag Software Co.,Ltd., standed for CEO Jia Dong, said in the report that the importance of establishment and perfection of open-source ecosystem. The compatibility of software and hardware products, open source personnel training and international cooperation are to focus on areas of concern. Zhongke Red Flag Software Co.,Ltd. has also set up the open source community, open source development fund, a joint Japan and South Korea established the OpenDRIM project and the joint development of the Asianux operating system, launched the RCE engineer certification and training, currently 6,000 people have passed the certification.

Mr. Cao Dong ,who is the vice general manager of CS2C, on behalf of the general manager Han Nai-ping, introduced the project of CS2C as a major commitment to the "Linux-based basic software platform construction", which was launched by Ministry of Information Industry, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health , the National Population and Family Planning Commission, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has interoperability between the same kind basic software products which composed the basis of software platform made in China. And it has interoperability between the different domestic infrastructure software platform solutions.

Mr. Stefano De Pasfilis, QualiPso project leader, introduced the key factor of mainstream industries open-source software applications is in user-centric with the computer or the Internet in the surrounding, which is essentially a user first. Open-source will be the driving force of economic services. QualiPso success is due to the community, industry and end users link up. In this process QualiPso also concerned about the business model, the maturity of open-source software and the quality of life cycle. Good organizational structure and international cooperation to the success of development projects is the fundamental guarantee.

Mr. Cai Jun, general manager of Kingdee Middleware company introduced how to resolve some existing problems in web development technology. It is proposed by the company Kingdee Middleware to advocate the establishment of OperaMasks project.OperaMasks.org is a network of public community-based organizations, Kingdee provide initial operating funds, at the same time donate the core source code to the community. Also Kingdee hope to find some talents through the community tissue.

Mr. Hu Caiyong , general manager of Redflag Chinese 2000, described open-source business models. Open source software as a service reflects the direction of software development, embodies the characteristics that software is the non-traditional products. He believes that the current system of commercial software products contrary to the nature of the software services. Open source software can return to the standard of service. He also pointed out that there is a certain gap between open-source version of its issued and the commercial version. Redflag Chinese 2000 paid great attention to the relationship with OpenOffice.org. Currently they can be stabilized provide feedback code to the OpenOffice.org community. And they can ensure that there are currently 50 full-time technical staff to participate in community development projects. 2008 International Conference of OpenOffice.org will be held this November in Beijing. Redflag Chinese 2000 company is the contractor of that conference.

Xu Hongbo, Professor from University of South China Technology introduced three characteristics of the next phase of network development based on virtual embodiment of network: to show users a real-life world;to provide a collaborative platform; to provide personalized information experience trend anytime and anywhere. 3D is the core impetus of next-generation Web applications. O-Enging technology's 3 Dii virtual platform will enable the traditional 3D virtual environment change to 3D incarnate environment.

Robert E. Shook III, Program Director, Global Market Strategy, IBM Open Source and Linux Middleware, introduced the development of Linux in four phases: (1) as a network infrastructure for business and business-critical applications, (2) Green Linux integration and virtualization, (3) change from the network edge to commercial applications, (4) open applications, this is also the development of Linux in one direction. At the same time Robert also pointed out that green Linux has a low TCO and will be able to run on multiple platforms. China and the global data also shows that there are broad space for Linux in the areas of logistics, finance, public services, life sciences and industrial environment.

Dr. Li Zhixiao, Microsoft China CTO, pointed out that Microsoft promote interoperability through four aspects: One is providing interoperability in products and the second one is listening to the views of the community, including partners, customers and competitors; The third, the access technology - The different levels of access technology allows a third party can get Microsoft's technology assets; The forth is actively involved in open standards organizations. In the process of promoting interoperability four principles will be followed: open access, data portability, and support for standards and the dialogue and exchanges between open source community and the partners.

As a domestic enterprise ranked second in application of IT services carrier, Mr. Zhang Bin, who is the general manager of C-E Open Source IT Co.,Ltd, pointed out that IT applications based on open source is very suitable for China's information technology development, and that will upgrade the core competitiveness of the enterprises, and also enhance the national strength. C-E Open Source Company is forming the organization and management model based on open source software model, using open source software in many occasions, and they follow the principle of learning, improving, applying and contributing.

Mr. Hu Bolin, president of Red Hat（Greater China）, introduced the development of Red Hat recently and the importance of service in the rapid development. Open Source is the lowest cost of service, and open source need to ensure customers' security, stability, and fast enough response. In addition, the success of open source needs an ecosystem. It also needs cooperate with the non-open source software and with many commercial software companies.

Dr. Yuan Quan, Director of GDLC, introduced the progress of promotion of public services with open source. The current service targets are of five categories: large business users, commercial team, companies, education and enthusiasts, government. Technology support centre acts as "bridge" role in different service targets, establishes channels for the transmission of information between the users and manufacturers, and establishes technical team and laboratory to solve problems for users or enterprises.

Stephane GRUMBACH, who is in charge of SCILAB Consortium, recommended a good open source project coordination mechanism while introducing the open source project SCILAB. SCILAB was developed into an international association from an internal project within a France research institute gradually through the open-source approach. Companies such as Citroen, Peugeot have a direct financial support to it. China now has a series of activities to promote SCILAB. The French side and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have established a joint laboratory, as a China-French cooperation project. The French side has six cooperations, China has more than 50 partners. SCILAB also present in China's colleges and universities in the relevant competitions.

Dr. Xie Qian, who is from Chinese Electronics Standardization Institute of Information Technology(CESI), introduced the progress of the Linux Standard Working Group, he also introduced the work has been done on input method engines norms and Web browser standard.

During the meeting, some sub-forums were held, such as " Round Table of 2008 Open Source China and Open Source World", "Wine down, Heroes and Middleware", "Open-source Middleware", and "Open Standards, Interoperability and Open Source Ecosystem".

To participate in this Summit, the major Chinese and foreign guests are: COPU chairman Lu Shouqun, Academician of China Academy of Engineering Ni Guangnan, Vice Director-General of MII Zhao Bo, vice director of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission Zhang Jun and vice director general Jiao Jun, vice director of the Office of the Guangdong Provincial Information Industry Ping Peng and vice investigator Tang Yueyuan, vice director of the Guangdong Finance Information Center Li Jian, vice director of the Guangzhou Information Office Wang Yuexi, Wu Yingming from Guangdong Police Department, Guangdong Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau Ye guanlin and Song Yan vice president and secretary general of CSIA Hu Kunshan, China Software Industry Association Vice Secretary General Zhu Yun,president of GDSIA Yang Haizhou, president of the Hong Kong Linux Association Jian Jinyuan, LUPA Chairman Zhang Jianhua, Vice Secretary-General of COPU Mr. Liu Peng, Dr. Chen Wei, Professor Yuan Meng and Mr. Huang Yuezhen, OpenOffice community Chairman Louis Suarez-Potts , LPI Chairman Mr. Jim Lacey, Apache Software Foundation director Jeff Aaron , SouceForge community manager, Mr. Ross David, PHP China community leaders Geng Zhijun, QualiPSO project leader Stefano De Panfilis, managing director of O- Engine Technology Ltd. Professor Xu Hongbo, Intel vice president and general manager of the Asia-Pacific R & D Co., Ltd. Mr. Wang Wenhan, Senior Manager of Intel Open Source Technology Center Feng Xiaoyan and Mr. Chen Xu, Director of IBM Linux and Power System Strategy and Business Development Mrs. Inna Kuznetsova, global market strategist of IBM Software Group and Linux Open-source Middleware Robert E. Shook III, General Manager of IBM China Business Innovation Center Mr. Liang Zhihui and Architect Mr. Tian Yong, Redhat Greater China CEO Mr. Hu Bolin , Director of SUN(Greater China)public sector Mrs. Tang Xiaoqun, Director of SUN China OSS Promotion Center Mr. Bai Jianbo, SUN China standards strategy manager Dr. Ding Wei, Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd. Chief Technology Officer Dr. Lee Zhixiao, Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd. director of platform strategy Mr. Li Keyan, principal of EMC China Research Institute for Dr. Mao Wenbo, NOKIA manager Huang Guoqing, Redflag Software Technologies Ltd. President and CEO Mr. Jia Dong (represented by Wang Minghua), General Manager of CS2C Mr. Han Naiping (represented by Cao Dong), general manager of Kingdee Middleware Co., Ltd. Cai Jun,General Manager of Beijing Zhongqi Open Source Information Technology Co., Ltd. Zhang Bin, General Manager of Red Office 2000 Software Technology Co., Ltd. Hu Caiyong, founder and CEO of Linpus Lin Zhengdao, vice director of CSIP Dr. Wang Xugang, SCILAB Consortium Stephane GRUMBACH, Chinese Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI)Dr. Xie Qian, director of GDLC Dr. Yuan Quan, and so on.