Fidelity Ventures

The Roundtable explored the rapid adoption of Open Source software in enterprise computing. Participating CIOs heard from industry leaders and IT practitioners managing software development using Open Source components. Critical issues covered included the benefits of Open Source adoption; software quality, certification and support; intellectual property issues; and emerging best practices in the management of software development.

Participants
Participants included over 40 CIOs and top IT executives from leading financial services firms. The keynote speaker was Martin Fink, Vice President of Linux for HP. Martin is responsible for HP's Linux and Open Source strategy.

Panelists included Robert Lefkowitz, Vice President, Enterprise Data, Systems and Architecture, AT&T Wireless; Paul Holland, Vice President, Open Source Enterprise Application Development, Fidelity Investments; and Peter Quinn, CIO of the State of Massachusetts.

Participating companies included Bloomberg, CSFB, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Hartford, Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Reuters and Wachovia.

Open Source Best Practices
These open source best practices were discussed at the event.

1. Educate the entire IT organization on both the benefits and obligations of using open source.
2. Engage with the open source community on projects that are of interest and value. Make contributions to support the projects.
3. Evaluate the source of open source software, and the license terms, before incorporating open source into your code base.
4. Facilitate engagement of legal counsel early in the process of evaluating the appropriateness of open source usage.
5. Perform due diligence on open source compliance when licensing or acquiring software assets from third parties.