• ConsenSys joins Hyperledger to help build enterprise blockchains

  Ethereum-focused development firm ConsenSys has joined Hyperledger as a premium member. Hyperledger—run by the Linux Foundation—is an open-source project focused on open-source technologies, particularly around enterprise blockchains.

• ConsenSys Joins Hyperledger as a Premier Member

  ConsenSys and Hyperledger announced today that ConsenSys has become the newest Premier Member of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies, hosted by the Linux Foundation. Additionally, ConsenSys's PegaSys protocol engineering group submitted its Ethereum client, formerly known as Pantheon, as the project Hyperledger Besu, the first public chain compatible blockchain submission to Hyperledger.

• Square Crypto Grants $100,000 to Open-Source Crypto Payment Processor

  Bitcoin (BTC)-supporting payments service Square Crypto is giving the first of what will be many grants to support open-source Bitcoin projects to BTCPay Foundation.

• CasperLabs Raises $14.5M Series A Round, Aims to Scale Blockchain Opportunities for Everyone

  CasperLabs, the open-source blockchain platform powered by the Correct-by-Construction (CBC) Casper proof-of-stake consensus protocol, today announced it has raised $14.5M in Series A funding led by Terren Piezer, the "Zelig of Wall Street," through his personal holding company, Acuitas Group Holdings. Other major investors include Arrington XRP Capital, Consensus Capital, Axiom Holdings Group, Digital Strategies, MW Partners, Blockchange Ventures, Hashkey Capital, and Distributed Global. The new investment will be used to accelerate product development and expand hiring of world-class engineers.

• Akeneo raises $46 million for its product information management service

  Akeneo started as an open-source PIM application. Today, thousands of companies actively use that open-source version. But Akeneo also offers an enterprise edition with a more traditional software-as-a-service approach. The startup has managed to attract 300 clients, such as Sephora, Fossil and Auchan.

• Where have all the seed deals gone?

  When it comes to big business, the numbers rarely lie, and the ones PitchBook and other sources have pulled together on the state of seed investing aren’t pretty. The total number of seed deals, funds raised and dollars invested in seed deals were all down in the 2015-2018 time frame, a period too long to be considered a correctable glitch.

  [...]

  Gone were the days of investing millions of dollars in tech infrastructure before writing the first line of code. At the same time, the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated and freely available open-source software provided many of the building blocks upon which to build a startup. And we can’t forget the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and, more importantly for startups, the App Store in 2008.

• Is Open Source licensing irretrievably broken?

  Jonathan Ellis is the CTO and Founder of DataStax. At ApacheCon 2019 in Las Vegas, he gave a keynote that will make many in the industry uncomfortable. The focus of that keynote was the state of open source licensing. Ellis believes that there is a problem, if not what some would call a looming crisis in how open source software licences are being used.

  He believes that the last 10 years, in particular, have seen a significant change in attitudes around what open source means. One of the big changes has been the shift from a hobbyist, part-time code development role to venture capital funded companies. Many of these like the open source model. As Ellis told Enterprise Times, making something open source is about instant exposure to a wider audience.

• Workarea Commerce Goes Open-source

  The enterprise commerce platform – Workarea is releasing its software to the open-source community. In case you don’t already know, Workarea was built to unify commerce, content management, merchant insights, and search. It was developed upon open-source technologies since its inception like Elasticsearch, MongoDB, and Ruby on Rails. Workarea aims to provide unparalleled services in terms of scalability and flexibility in modern cloud environments. Its platform source code and demo instructions are available on GitHub here.

• Wyoming CV Pilot develops open-source RSU monitoring system

  The team working on the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program in Wyoming have developed open-source applications for the operation and maintenance of Roadside Units (RSUs) that can be viewed by all stakeholders.

  The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) Connected Vehicle Pilot implementation includes the deployment of 75 RSUs along 400 miles (644km) of I-80. With long drive times and tough winters in the state, WYDOT needed an efficient way to monitor the performance of and manage and update these units to maintain peak performance. With no suitable product readily available, the WYDOT Connected Vehicle team developed an open-source application that allows authorized transportation management center (TMC) operators to monitor and manage each RSU at the roadside. The WYDOT team found that the application can also be used as a public-facing tool that shows a high-level status report of the pilot’s equipment.

  [...]

  For other state or local agencies and departments of transportation (DOTs) wishing to deploy a similar capability to monitor and manage RSUs, the application code has been made available on the USDOT’s Open Source Application Development Portal (OSADP). The code is downloadable and can be used and customized by other agencies free of charge. WYDOT developed this capability using USDOT funds under the CV Pilot program as open-source software and associated documentation. The application represents one of six that the program will be providing during its three phases.

• You Too Can Make These Fun Games (No Experience Necessary)

  Making a videogame remained a bucket list item until I stumbled on an incredibly simple open source web app called Bitsy. I started playing around with it, just to see how it worked. Before I knew it, I had something playable. I made my game in a couple of hours.

• From maverick to mainstream: why open source software is now indispensable for modern business

  Free and open source software has a long and intriguing history. Some of its roots go all the way back to the 1980s when Richard Stallman first launched the GNU project.

• Analyst Watch: Is open source the great equalizer?

  If you had told me 25 years ago that open source would be the predominant force in software development, I would’ve laughed.

  Back then, at my industrial software gig, we were encouraged to patent as much IP as possible, even processes that seemed like common-sense business practices, or generally useful capabilities for any software developer.

  If you didn’t, your nearest competitor would surely come out with their own patent claims, or inevitable patent trolls would show up demanding fees for any uncovered bit of code.

  We did have this one developer who was constantly talking about fiddling with his Linux kernel at home, on his personal time. Interesting hobby.

• Scientists Create World’s First Open Source Tool for 3D Analysis of Advanced Biomaterials

  Materials scientists and programmers from the Tomsk Polytechnic University in Russia and Germany's Karlsuhe Institute of Technology have created the world’s first open source software for the 2D and 3D visualization and analysis of biomaterials used for research into tissue regeneration.

  [...]

  Scientists have already tested the software on a variety of X-ray tomography data.

  “The results have shown that the software we’ve created can help other scientists conducting similar studies in the analysis of the fibrous structure of any polymer scaffolds, including hybrid ones,” Surmenev emphasised.

• Making Collaborative Data Projects Easier: Our New Tool, Collaborate, Is Here

  On Wednesday, we’re launching a beta test of a new software tool. It’s called Collaborate, and it makes it possible for multiple newsrooms to work together on data projects.

  Collaborations are a major part of ProPublica’s approach to journalism, and in the past few years we’ve run several large-scale collaborative projects, including Electionland and Documenting Hate. Along the way, we’ve created software to manage and share the large pools of data used by our hundreds of newsrooms partners. As part of a Google News Initiative grant this year, we’ve beefed up that software and made it open source so that anybody can use it.

• Should open-source software be the gold standard for nonprofits?

  Prior to its relaunch, nonprofit organization Cadasta had become so focused on the technology side of its work that it distracted from the needs of partners in the field.

  “When you’re building out a new platform, it really is all consuming,” said Cadasta CEO Amy Coughenour, reflecting on some of the decisions that were made prior to her joining the team in 2018.

• Artificial intelligence: an open source future

  At the same time, we’re seeing an increasing number of technology companies invest in AI development. However, what’s really interesting is that these companies - including the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce and Uber - are open sourcing their AI research. This move is already enabling developers worldwide to create and improve AI & Machine Learning (ML) algorithms faster. As such, open source software has become a fundamental part of enabling fast, reliable, and also secure development in the AI space. So, why all the hype around open source AI? Why are businesses of all sizes, from industry behemoths to startups, embracing open source? And where does the future lie for AI and ML as a result?

• How open source is accelerating innovation in AI

  By eradicating barriers like high licensing fees and talent scarcity, open source is accelerating the pace of AI innovation, writes Carmine Rimi

  No other technology has captured the world’s imagination quite like AI, and there is perhaps no other that has been so disruptive. AI has already transformed the lives of people and businesses and will continue to do so in endless ways as more startups uncover its potential. According to a recent study, venture capital funding for AI startups in the UK increased by more than 200 percent last year, while a Stanford University study observed a 14-times increase in the number of AI startups worldwide in the last two years.

• Adam Jacob Advocates for Building Healthy OSS Communities in “The War for the Soul of Open Source”

  Chef co-founder and former CTO Adam Jacob gave a short presentation at O’Reilly Open Source Software Conference (OSCON) 2019 titled “The War for the Soul of Open Source.” In his search for meaning in open source software today, Jacob confronts the notion of open source business models.

  “We often talk about open source business models,” he said. “There isn’t an open source business model. That’s not a thing and the reason is open source is a channel. Open source is a way that you, in a business sense, get the software out to the people, the people use the software, and then they become a channel, which [companies] eventually try to turn into money.”

  [...]

  In December 2018, Jacob launched the Sustainable Free and Open Source Communities (SFOSC) project to advocate for these ideas. Instead of focusing on protecting revenue models of OSS companies, the project’s contributors work together to collaborate on writing core principles, social contracts, and business models as guidelines for healthy OSS communities.

• New Open Source Startups Emerge After Acquisition, IPO Flurry

  After a flurry of mega-acquisitions and initial public offerings of open source companies, a new batch of entrepreneurs are trying their hands at startups based on free software projects.

• TC9 selected by NIST to develop Open Source Software for Transactive Energy Markets

  TC9, Inc. was selected by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop open source software for Transactive Energy Bilateral Markets based on the NIST Common Transactive Services.

  Under the contract, TC9 will develop open source software (OSS) for agents for a transactive energy market. The software will be used to model the use of transactive energy to manage power distribution within a neighborhood. Transactive Energy is a means to balance volatile supply and consumption in real time. Experts anticipate the use of Transactive Energy to support wide deployment of distributed energy resources (DER) across the power grid.

• Open Source Software Allows Auterion to Move Drone Workflows into the Cloud

  “Until today, customizing operations in the MAVLink protocol required a deep understanding of complex subjects such as embedded systems, drone dynamics, and the C++ programming language,” said Kevin Sartori, co-founder of Auterion. “With MAVSDK, any qualified mobile developer can write high-level code for complex operations, meaning more developers will be able to build custom applications and contribute to the community.”

• ApacheCon 2019 Keynote: James Gosling's Journey to Open Source

  At the recent ApacheCon North America 2019 in Las Vegas, James Gosling delivered a keynote talk on his personal journey to open-source. Gosling's main takeaways were: open source allows programmers to learn by reading source code, developers must pay attention to intellectual property rights to prevent abuse, and projects can take on a life of their own.

• 20 Years of the Apache Software Foundation: ApacheCon 2019 Opening Keynote

  At the recent ApacheCon North America 2019 in Las Vegas, the opening keynote session celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), with key themes being: the history of the ASF, a strong commitment to community and collaboration, and efforts to increase contributions from the public. The session also featured a talk by astrophysicist David Brin on the potential dangers of AI.

• Shimmer announces open source initiative for wearable sensor algorithms

• Shimmer announces launch of healthcare industry open source initiative for wearable sensor algorithms

  Shimmer Research, a global leader in wearable technology for research applications, today announced the launch of a healthcare industry open source initiative for wearable sensor algorithms. The initiative is being co-founded by Shimmer, Dr. Vincent van Hees, author of the GGIR software and algorithms for movement sensor calibration, sensor wear detection, and signal aggregation, and Nextbridge Health, which is developing the Nextbridge Exchange, an online marketplace and discovery platform for the clinical research community.

• 'One big happy family': How Pivotal will fit back into VMware

  In August, VMware announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire its fellow Dell EMC family member Pivotal, the platform-as-a-service vendor it helped spin out back in 2012.

  The deal would value Pivotal – which helps clients adopt modern and streamlined software development practices – at $2.7 billion. Pivotal is best known for its commercial version of the open source platform-as-a-service Cloud Foundry, which essentially enables Java, Ruby, Node.js, .NET Core, Python, PHP, and Go developers to make their existing applications cloud-native.

• CipherTrace Unveils Trustworthy Open Source Solution for FATF Travel Rule Compliance

• CipherTrace Launches Open Source Solution For FATF Travel Rule Compliance

• CipherTrace unveils open source solution for crypto Travel Rule compliance 'TRISA'

• Explainer: How Hong Kong’s ‘self-learning, open source’ protest movement decides what to do next

• Exclusive Research from Sumo Logic Reveals Multi-Cloud on the Rise and Open Source Technologies like Kubernetes is Disrupting the Modern Application Stack

• Sumo Logic eyes open source disruption (in 4 of 6 stack levels)

• Multicloud is the fastest growing modern infrastructure

• HeleCloud acquires open source specialist OlinData

• Kong open sources universal service mesh Kuma

• Kong announces Kuma, an open-source project to overcome the limitations of first-generation service mesh technologies

• Open-Source Kuma Tackles Service Mesh Limits

• Kong Open Sources Kuma: The Universal Service Mesh

• Mirantis Aligns With Facebook to Advance CNFs

• Glanbia Ireland And Teagasc Unveil Open Source Future Farm Programme

• New Open Source Future Farm Programme unveiled

• EdX Appoints New Managers; JP Beaudry Will Lead the Open Source Operations

• Exploring the Motivations for the Inaugural Open Core Summit: Q&A with Founder Joseph Jacks

• Open Robotica launches, aims to ease robotics software development

• Open Source Leader SalesAgility Launches New Analytics Tool Using an Open Source BI Platform

• Color Open-Sources Playbook for Population Genomics Programs

  By open-sourcing this playbook, Color is supporting global efforts to make genetics and precision health programs accessible, convenient, and cost effective, while offering responsible clinical grade return of results to all participants.

  Despite rapidly decreasing sequencing costs and growing interest in population-scale genomics, many programs have struggled to launch and scale as expected for two primary reasons.

  First, many programs have been rebuilding critical components of the architecture from the ground up, including lab infrastructure, bioinformatics, clinical interpretation & reporting, as well as secure and flexible data management systems. This process often dramatically extends timelines and forces programs to incur unnecessary costs and implementation risks.

Amongst the many benefits of free and open source software, include the economic advantages of code reuse and the sharing of programming costs. For public institutions however, there are more fundamental reasons for embracing the open source model: [...]