Do you think OSS Discovery and the Census will encourage more enterprises to use Open Source?

I do. I think people will be much more comfortable deciding to officially use open source software if they can see that 90% of the enterprises in their industry are already using it. Right now it's all anecdotal data, but the numbers from The Open Source Census will provide hard data. It will also help technical architects convince their peers and management that open source software is a critical part of doing business these days.

Where do you see the new frontier of open source software?

Our Expert Community is very global. Over half of our members are open source contributors from outside the US. In the future, I think we'll see the most growth in Eastern Europe and Asia. A lot of people are predicting that India will be the next growth spot - I think the key factor will be getting government support to build the infrastructure.

In referral to the recent dilemma at Sun which you blogged about in December, you said "many companies are afraid to start working on open source software projects because they are afraid they might make a mistake - and mistakes in the open source world are very public, feedback is harsh and the negative publicity sticks around for a long time on the internet." What should companies working on open source software projects do to avoid this?

Learn about open source software, understand the community and the motivations behind it. The community is very forgiving if your heart is in the right place. Companies worry so much about perception that they forget to share that they are excited about open source software!

Our customers have found some amazing things - they are usually using 10 times more open source software than they thought!

You've talked about the OpenLogic Expert Community and its communication model that is very open and transparent as one of the most exciting things for you - what advantages do you see it having over the traditional business model?

Few companies can offer a full-time job to a contributor working on his/her favorite project. However, many companies are using the same projects and they could "pool their resources." If we moved more to the OpenLogic model, we would enable people to work full-time on their favorite project because they'd get paid by the many different companies interested in that project. It would look more like contract work as opposed to full time employment contracts. That also sits well with the community because typically contract work doesn't come with the same type of intellectual property agreement that full time employment does.

IDC and Gartner stats have predicted huge increases in the adoption of open source software by business over the next five years - what is your view on the future direction open source software is heading in enterprise and why?

Open source software is already being used in virtually every enterprise. I think in the next few years enterprises will become aware of the open source software they are using and they'll embrace it. We'll see open source software projects become "officially blessed" instead of coming in the back door. I also think open source is going to dominate in the mobile device market.