“Publisher Tim O’Reilly needs no introduction to the Internet
community, as his reference books have become the staple of
Web-facing IT departments. One of the architects behind the Open
Source branding initiative, a board member of the IETF and trustee
of the Internet Society, O’Reilly was in London for the launch of
O’Reilly UK. He spoke to Andrew Orlowski, news editor of IT
Week.”
“So why the interest in Open Source now? Has it increased, or
did the media just wake late up to it?”
“You’ve warned before about the threats to Open Source software,
particularly from protocols becoming commoditised. Is that still
the biggest threat?”
“Commoditising protocols is like over-fishing. Microsoft is not
being a good corporate citizen when it does that. We’ve got to
protect Open Source like we protect the environment. I’m a trustee
of the Internet Society and there’s this analogy between the
Internet and the environment; we need a Sierra Club for the
Internet — it’s important.”