Web Development Live

YOU’VE probably heard of the term Web 2.0. It was invented by
computer book publisher Tim O’Reilly and refers to the increasingly
large number of internet applications that are collaborative and
interactive.
There are many examples - Wikipedia, Second Life, social
networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, photo sharing site
Flickr and a host of others. These have emerged just in the last
few years and have already changed the way many of us use the
internet.
Indeed, they have changed the way many of us live. This tends to
be especially true of younger people, to whom cyberspace is almost
as big a part of life as the “real” world.
Until now, Web 2.0 applications have mostly affected
individuals. Companies and government organisations have largely
retained more traditional methods of communication. The primary
collaborative technology for most organisations in the modern world
has become email, which is very much a Web 1.0, or first
generation, internet application.
That is now changing. Web 2.0 applications are increasingly
finding their way into the enterprise. This phenomenon has,
inevitably, been dubbed Enterprise 2.0. That term was invented last
year by Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee, who has
emerged as something of an international authority on the subject.
Last week I heard a remarkable presentation by Professor McAfee on
the state of play with Enterprise 2.0 worldwide. His talk was
beamed in via Skype from Orlando, Florida, where he was attending
an enterprise search conference. He spoke to 200 of us assembled in
a conference room in Sydney’s Luna Park to discuss Enterprise 2.0
in Australia.
First, Professor McAfee defined the subject. Fair enough. He
invented the term, after all. “Enterprise 2.0 is the use of
emergent social software platforms within companies, or between
companies and their partners or customers.”
Those “emergent social software platforms” are the Web 2.0
applications we looked at above. Professor McAfee refers to these
as “free and easy” applications, in contrast to something like
email which he describes as “a channel which closes down after each
message”.
Another key point about these “emergent applications” is that
the important thing is how the software is used, not about how it
is delivered, or how it is developed, or how it is integrated. The
key to Enterprise 2.0 is usage - getting more people in the
organisation using software applications that enable them to share
ideas and information.
The event I attended where we heard Professor McAfee’s words of
wisdom was the grandly named “Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum”, run
by Sydney company Future Enterprise Network (FEN). FEN
(futureexploration.net) is run by Ross Dawson, who has become one
of Australia’s leading internet gurus in recent years. He also runs
regular events on the future of media.
We also heard, via the wonders of a Skype videolink, from Euan
Semple, formerly head of knowledge management at the BBC. Mr Semple
reported to us from his sister’s kitchen in Munich, where he was
working as part of his new career as an adviser to European
companies on Enterprise 2.0 issues.
We also heard, from real live individuals within the room, about
a number of Australian companies and their use of Enterprise 2.0
technologies. Westpac is using Second Life for staff training.
Bionic ear company Cochlear uses a wiki for software development.
Pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag has developed a blog-like
corporate internet for internal communications. Clearly, Enterprise
2.0 is here.
But there is reluctance to embrace the technology in many
quarters. Mr Semple told of some of the problems he had introducing
the technology at the BBC. “There are significant cultural hurdles.
Many senior managers are not comfortable with the tools. I often
found it was easier to go around barriers rather than confront
them. It is easier to apologise afterwards than to ask permission
up-front.”
He spoke about one manager who could not initially believe that
staff could be trusted with social networking tools in a work
environment. He was worried that they would waste time, or that
material in blogs could be read by people outside the organisation
and give away corporate secrets.
These sorts of issues, as many speakers discussed, are common
barriers to the introduction of Enterprise 2.0 technologies in many
organisations. But the common theme was how these barriers can be
overcome and the many benefits that the technology can bring to the
organisation.
“It’s cheap, it’s easy and it conforms to the way knowledge
workers work,” Professor McAfee says.
“Among strongly tied co-workers, a wiki can function as a kind
of online whiteboard. Among those with looser affiliations, social
networking tools are very important, and can serve as bridges to
other networks, just as they do in the personal sphere.
“And blogs are great ways of coming across serendipitous
information, helping innovation and fostering new ideas.”
We’ve been hearing for years that companies need to be smarter
and more responsive and that they need to find new ways to tap into
employees’ capabilities. Enterprise 2.0 tools would seem to offer
just those capabilities. This may scare some people of my
generation but with the Gen X and Gen Y types coming through, they
will have no choice.
graeme@philipson.info

Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday that it was joining rival Google Inc.’s initiative for creating photo-sharing and other social tools that work across the Web.
News Corp.’s MySpace earlier pledged support, and the three companies announced Tuesday that they were forming a nonprofit organization, the OpenSocial Foundation, to ensure that the platform remains neutral and viable.
The idea behind the Google-initiated OpenSocial platform is to create a common coding standard for the applications so they work on hundreds of Web sites. The applications could permit chats, games, media sharing and more.
By contrast, sites that haven’t joined OpenSocial typically rely on unique coding that has prevented widgets developed for its sites from working at other places on the Web.
The addition of Yahoo could put pressure on Facebook, the No. 2 social-networking site behind MySpace, to pledge support as well, though Facebook has had tremendous success encouraging developers to write tools specifically for it.
Other participants in OpenSocial include Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, Ning, the Google-owned Orkut and Bebo, which Time Warner Inc.’s AOL is planning to buy for $850 million.
In a company blog entry, Yahoo Vice President Wade Chambers said the company was joining OpenSocial now because “it’s no longer a trial balloon _ it’s for real.”
Chambers said Yahoo wanted to make developers feel confident about using OpenSocial as a building block for future social applications.
By creating a nonprofit to oversee OpenSocial, effective July 1, the companies want to ensure that intellectual property assets remain available to everyone. The companies said the foundation also would provide transparency and guidelines around technical and legal issues as the platform evolves.

YOU’VE probably heard of the term Web 2.0. It was invented by
computer book publisher Tim O’Reilly and refers to the increasingly
large number of internet applications that are collaborative and
interactive.
There are many examples - Wikipedia, Second Life, social
networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, photo sharing site
Flickr and a host of others. These have emerged just in the last
few years and have already changed the way many of us use the
internet.
Indeed, they have changed the way many of us live. This tends to
be especially true of younger people, to whom cyberspace is almost
as big a part of life as the “real” world.
Until now, Web 2.0 applications have mostly affected
individuals. Companies and government organisations have largely
retained more traditional methods of communication. The primary
collaborative technology for most organisations in the modern world
has become email, which is very much a Web 1.0, or first
generation, internet application.
That is now changing. Web 2.0 applications are increasingly
finding their way into the enterprise. This phenomenon has,
inevitably, been dubbed Enterprise 2.0. That term was invented last
year by Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee, who has
emerged as something of an international authority on the subject.
Last week I heard a remarkable presentation by Professor McAfee on
the state of play with Enterprise 2.0 worldwide. His talk was
beamed in via Skype from Orlando, Florida, where he was attending
an enterprise search conference. He spoke to 200 of us assembled in
a conference room in Sydney’s Luna Park to discuss Enterprise 2.0
in Australia.
First, Professor McAfee defined the subject. Fair enough. He
invented the term, after all. “Enterprise 2.0 is the use of
emergent social software platforms within companies, or between
companies and their partners or customers.”
Those “emergent social software platforms” are the Web 2.0
applications we looked at above. Professor McAfee refers to these
as “free and easy” applications, in contrast to something like
email which he describes as “a channel which closes down after each
message”.
Another key point about these “emergent applications” is that
the important thing is how the software is used, not about how it
is delivered, or how it is developed, or how it is integrated. The
key to Enterprise 2.0 is usage - getting more people in the
organisation using software applications that enable them to share
ideas and information.
The event I attended where we heard Professor McAfee’s words of
wisdom was the grandly named “Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum”, run
by Sydney company Future Enterprise Network (FEN). FEN
(futureexploration.net) is run by Ross Dawson, who has become one
of Australia’s leading internet gurus in recent years. He also runs
regular events on the future of media.
We also heard, via the wonders of a Skype videolink, from Euan
Semple, formerly head of knowledge management at the BBC. Mr Semple
reported to us from his sister’s kitchen in Munich, where he was
working as part of his new career as an adviser to European
companies on Enterprise 2.0 issues.
We also heard, from real live individuals within the room, about
a number of Australian companies and their use of Enterprise 2.0
technologies. Westpac is using Second Life for staff training.
Bionic ear company Cochlear uses a wiki for software development.
Pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag has developed a blog-like
corporate internet for internal communications. Clearly, Enterprise
2.0 is here.
But there is reluctance to embrace the technology in many
quarters. Mr Semple told of some of the problems he had introducing
the technology at the BBC. “There are significant cultural hurdles.
Many senior managers are not comfortable with the tools. I often
found it was easier to go around barriers rather than confront
them. It is easier to apologise afterwards than to ask permission
up-front.”
He spoke about one manager who could not initially believe that
staff could be trusted with social networking tools in a work
environment. He was worried that they would waste time, or that
material in blogs could be read by people outside the organisation
and give away corporate secrets.
These sorts of issues, as many speakers discussed, are common
barriers to the introduction of Enterprise 2.0 technologies in many
organisations. But the common theme was how these barriers can be
overcome and the many benefits that the technology can bring to the
organisation.
“It’s cheap, it’s easy and it conforms to the way knowledge
workers work,” Professor McAfee says.
“Among strongly tied co-workers, a wiki can function as a kind
of online whiteboard. Among those with looser affiliations, social
networking tools are very important, and can serve as bridges to
other networks, just as they do in the personal sphere.
“And blogs are great ways of coming across serendipitous
information, helping innovation and fostering new ideas.”
We’ve been hearing for years that companies need to be smarter
and more responsive and that they need to find new ways to tap into
employees’ capabilities. Enterprise 2.0 tools would seem to offer
just those capabilities. This may scare some people of my
generation but with the Gen X and Gen Y types coming through, they
will have no choice.
graeme@philipson.info

The allure of Hollywood’s biggest stars is losing out to entertainment based on microscopic circuitry and fancy software.Do you doubt it? While movie attendance has essentially been flat for six years, games for computers and video consoles have been booming.If the trend continues, many people in the entertainment industry will lose their jobs, but new types of jobs are already opening up, particularly in parts of California, which form a digital entertainment hub.”I feel a massive shift,” said Dana Settle, a venture capitalist at Greycroft Partners in Los Angeles who invests in online companies. “Movie studios are corporate behemoths. They’re going to crumble.”Movie stars Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, Mike Myers as the voice of Shrek and Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow came out with hit sequels last year, which helped raise box office receipts in North America to $9.7 billion. But that total, which excludes shrinking DVD sales and downloads, was up a mere 2.4 percent from 2004, according to data tracker Media by Numbers.Apples-to-apples comparisons aren’t possible, but the contrasts are clear. Game industry sales, including consoles and software, totaled about $18 billion in the United States last year, up 43 percent over 2006, according to market researcher NPD Group.The first-person shooting game “Halo 3,” the hard-to-find Wii game console and the role-playing “World of Warcraft” were among the hits that contributed to those sales. Last month, Warcraft publisher Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine announced the game had 10 million subscribers.The No. 1 game even outpaced the No. 1 movie last year. “Halo 3″ brought in $170 million on its first day; “Spider-Man 3″ grossed $151 million on its first weekend.Game experts recently discussed the effects of changing entertainment choices. The impact extends from the living room to the workplace.”Studios are on the down slope, and they know it,” said Jamie Somes, senior managing director of Alexander Dunham Capital investment bank in Los Angeles. “They’re not well-positioned as organizations for the new digital environment.” He cited predictions that within five years studios will be only half to one-tenth their current size.”In studios, you can smell the fear,” Settle said. “They’re missing the creative spark. At game companies, people are psyched.”Unlike movies, modern computer-based games let viewers interact with the game’s story or with other players, said Bob Drobish, president of startup True Games Interactive, who spoke to a meeting of video game engineers at the Digital Media Center incubator in Santa Ana.Modern games often do not appeal to consumers over 30 because they tend to think of computers as one-person productivity tools - which is what they used to be, Drobish said. People under 30 take to those games more readily, he said, because they view computers as social devices for exchanging e-mails, instant messages and pictures with friends.”Computers are inherently social,” especially in the age of high-speed broadband networks, he said. New types of games tap into that quality, especially multiplayer online role-playing games such as “World of Warcraft,” he said.The development of multiplayer social games is possible because of fundamental technological improvements in computers and computer networks, said Tim Walsh, the Los Angeles-based executive vice president of in-game advertising company IGA Worldwide.”Improved software, file compression, better code, Flash animation - they’re coming together to extend the digital lifestyle,” he said.With the new appeal of games come new business opportunities - and more games in the future.- Red 5 Studios. Three game makers and executives from Blizzard - “World of Warcraft” team leader Mark Kern, art director William Petras, and Taewon Yun, who launched the game in Korea - founded Red 5 Studios in 2005 and since then have been working on their first game. With development studios in Aliso Viejo and Shanghai, China, the company’s goal is “bringing together millions of gamers across the world by creating immersive worlds, intriguing stories and compelling characters.”- Carbine Studios. Ten other former “World of Warcraft” game makers, including lead animator Kevin Beardslee, lead composer Jason Hayes and senior artist Matt Mocarski, founded Carbine Studios in Aliso Viejo. The company has 17 former Blizzard employees who are developing a multiplayer online game.- True Games Interactive. Last year, Drobish and Jeff Lujan, chief publishing officer at True Games, left executive positions at K2 to pursue their startup. They hope to launch a domestic version of a Korean game this summer.- Sleepy Giant. Last year former K2 executives Matthew Hannus and David Lee started Newport Beach-based Sleepy Giant, which runs other companies’ games rather than developing its own. The gaming opportunities aren’t limited to entrepreneurs.”A lot of good Hollywood TV and movie talent is being drawn to games” because game production can be more stable than the boom-and-bust movie business, and can even offer better fringe benefits, said Mark Friedler, founder of the GameDaily Web site. People who are moving from movies to games include digital artists and special effects experts, who tell Friedler one reason for the decision is, “I like having health insurance,” he said. Because the virtual landscapes of online worlds have grown to accommodate so many players, Walsh said, “Game companies need a tremendous amount of digital artists, physicists and designers.” Friedler cited two problems new game companies face - rising costs and growing competition for consumers‘ time. “To create a next-generation console game costs $40 million to $50 million,” he said. “That’s the same cost as a lot of movies.” With “World of Warcraft,” Blizzard changed the market, raising players’ expectations for how realistic a game will be. To accomplish that, the company spent an estimated $90 million, Drobish said. At first the budget seemed excessive, but now it looks brilliant, he said. Intense competition for consumers’ time has already affected traditional forms of entertainment. “Movies and TV are seeing a shift away from them because there are only so many hours in the day,” Walsh said. He foresees a bright future for games, but some industry observers think the same competition for people’s attention could hurt games, too. “People worry about crowding out,” Friedler said. “If someone is always on Facebook and MySpace and texting, how much time is left for games?”

In a surprise move, Sun Microsystems said it’s acquiring privately held open source database vendor MySQL AB for approximately USD 1 billion.Called the largest open source software deal ever, the merger makes Sun the owner of a critical part of the popular LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Perl/Python/PHP) open source software stack. Sun already has been offering up its own software to open source, even basing its development tools strategy on the open source NetBeans platform.Following completion of the proposed transaction, MySQL will be integrated into Sun’s Software, Sales and Service organizations and the company’s CEO, Marten Mickos, will be joining Sun’s senior executive leadership team. In the interim, a joint team with representatives from both companies will develop integration plans.With the move, Sun takes a big leap into the USD 15bn database market, which brings it into competition with companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. Acquiring MySQL also gives Sun entry to customers that may be interested in buying more equipment and software; MySQL counts Facebook, Google, Nokia and Baidu as customers.Open source CRM vendor SugarCRM, PHP tools vendor Zend Technologies, and SpringSource, makers of the open source Spring Framework for Java development applauded the deal. “I think open source has gone mainstream,” and Sun has put its stamp on it, said Zend CEO Harold Goldberg. “We think it’s a great day for open source, and we think it’s a great day for the LAMP stack.”As part of the transaction, Sun will pay about USD 800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assume about USD 200 million in options. The transaction is expected to close in late third quarter or early fourth quarter.

In a surprise move, Sun Microsystems said it’s acquiring privately held open source database vendor MySQL AB for approximately USD 1 billion.Called the largest open source software deal ever, the merger makes Sun the owner of a critical part of the popular LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Perl/Python/PHP) open source software stack. Sun already has been offering up its own software to open source, even basing its development tools strategy on the open source NetBeans platform.Following completion of the proposed transaction, MySQL will be integrated into Sun’s Software, Sales and Service organizations and the company’s CEO, Marten Mickos, will be joining Sun’s senior executive leadership team. In the interim, a joint team with representatives from both companies will develop integration plans.With the move, Sun takes a big leap into the USD 15bn database market, which brings it into competition with companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. Acquiring MySQL also gives Sun entry to customers that may be interested in buying more equipment and software; MySQL counts Facebook, Google, Nokia and Baidu as customers.Open source CRM vendor SugarCRM, PHP tools vendor Zend Technologies, and SpringSource, makers of the open source Spring Framework for Java development applauded the deal. “I think open source has gone mainstream,” and Sun has put its stamp on it, said Zend CEO Harold Goldberg. “We think it’s a great day for open source, and we think it’s a great day for the LAMP stack.”As part of the transaction, Sun will pay about USD 800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assume about USD 200 million in options. The transaction is expected to close in late third quarter or early fourth quarter.

In a surprise move, Sun Microsystems said it’s acquiring privately held open source database vendor MySQL AB for approximately USD 1 billion.Called the largest open source software deal ever, the merger makes Sun the owner of a critical part of the popular LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Perl/Python/PHP) open source software stack. Sun already has been offering up its own software to open source, even basing its development tools strategy on the open source NetBeans platform.Following completion of the proposed transaction, MySQL will be integrated into Sun’s Software, Sales and Service organizations and the company’s CEO, Marten Mickos, will be joining Sun’s senior executive leadership team. In the interim, a joint team with representatives from both companies will develop integration plans.With the move, Sun takes a big leap into the USD 15bn database market, which brings it into competition with companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. Acquiring MySQL also gives Sun entry to customers that may be interested in buying more equipment and software; MySQL counts Facebook, Google, Nokia and Baidu as customers.Open source CRM vendor SugarCRM, PHP tools vendor Zend Technologies, and SpringSource, makers of the open source Spring Framework for Java development applauded the deal. “I think open source has gone mainstream,” and Sun has put its stamp on it, said Zend CEO Harold Goldberg. “We think it’s a great day for open source, and we think it’s a great day for the LAMP stack.”As part of the transaction, Sun will pay about USD 800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assume about USD 200 million in options. The transaction is expected to close in late third quarter or early fourth quarter.

The allure of Hollywood’s biggest stars is losing out to entertainment based on microscopic circuitry and fancy software.Do you doubt it? While movie attendance has essentially been flat for six years, games for computers and video consoles have been booming.If the trend continues, many people in the entertainment industry will lose their jobs, but new types of jobs are already opening up, particularly in parts of California, which form a digital entertainment hub.”I feel a massive shift,” said Dana Settle, a venture capitalist at Greycroft Partners in Los Angeles who invests in online companies. “Movie studios are corporate behemoths. They’re going to crumble.”Movie stars Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, Mike Myers as the voice of Shrek and Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow came out with hit sequels last year, which helped raise box office receipts in North America to $9.7 billion. But that total, which excludes shrinking DVD sales and downloads, was up a mere 2.4 percent from 2004, according to data tracker Media by Numbers.Apples-to-apples comparisons aren’t possible, but the contrasts are clear. Game industry sales, including consoles and software, totaled about $18 billion in the United States last year, up 43 percent over 2006, according to market researcher NPD Group.The first-person shooting game “Halo 3,” the hard-to-find Wii game console and the role-playing “World of Warcraft” were among the hits that contributed to those sales. Last month, Warcraft publisher Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine announced the game had 10 million subscribers.The No. 1 game even outpaced the No. 1 movie last year. “Halo 3″ brought in $170 million on its first day; “Spider-Man 3″ grossed $151 million on its first weekend.Game experts recently discussed the effects of changing entertainment choices. The impact extends from the living room to the workplace.”Studios are on the down slope, and they know it,” said Jamie Somes, senior managing director of Alexander Dunham Capital investment bank in Los Angeles. “They’re not well-positioned as organizations for the new digital environment.” He cited predictions that within five years studios will be only half to one-tenth their current size.”In studios, you can smell the fear,” Settle said. “They’re missing the creative spark. At game companies, people are psyched.”Unlike movies, modern computer-based games let viewers interact with the game’s story or with other players, said Bob Drobish, president of startup True Games Interactive, who spoke to a meeting of video game engineers at the Digital Media Center incubator in Santa Ana.Modern games often do not appeal to consumers over 30 because they tend to think of computers as one-person productivity tools - which is what they used to be, Drobish said. People under 30 take to those games more readily, he said, because they view computers as social devices for exchanging e-mails, instant messages and pictures with friends.”Computers are inherently social,” especially in the age of high-speed broadband networks, he said. New types of games tap into that quality, especially multiplayer online role-playing games such as “World of Warcraft,” he said.The development of multiplayer social games is possible because of fundamental technological improvements in computers and computer networks, said Tim Walsh, the Los Angeles-based executive vice president of in-game advertising company IGA Worldwide.”Improved software, file compression, better code, Flash animation - they’re coming together to extend the digital lifestyle,” he said.With the new appeal of games come new business opportunities - and more games in the future.- Red 5 Studios. Three game makers and executives from Blizzard - “World of Warcraft” team leader Mark Kern, art director William Petras, and Taewon Yun, who launched the game in Korea - founded Red 5 Studios in 2005 and since then have been working on their first game. With development studios in Aliso Viejo and Shanghai, China, the company’s goal is “bringing together millions of gamers across the world by creating immersive worlds, intriguing stories and compelling characters.”- Carbine Studios. Ten other former “World of Warcraft” game makers, including lead animator Kevin Beardslee, lead composer Jason Hayes and senior artist Matt Mocarski, founded Carbine Studios in Aliso Viejo. The company has 17 former Blizzard employees who are developing a multiplayer online game.- True Games Interactive. Last year, Drobish and Jeff Lujan, chief publishing officer at True Games, left executive positions at K2 to pursue their startup. They hope to launch a domestic version of a Korean game this summer.- Sleepy Giant. Last year former K2 executives Matthew Hannus and David Lee started Newport Beach-based Sleepy Giant, which runs other companies’ games rather than developing its own. The gaming opportunities aren’t limited to entrepreneurs.”A lot of good Hollywood TV and movie talent is being drawn to games” because game production can be more stable than the boom-and-bust movie business, and can even offer better fringe benefits, said Mark Friedler, founder of the GameDaily Web site. People who are moving from movies to games include digital artists and special effects experts, who tell Friedler one reason for the decision is, “I like having health insurance,” he said. Because the virtual landscapes of online worlds have grown to accommodate so many players, Walsh said, “Game companies need a tremendous amount of digital artists, physicists and designers.” Friedler cited two problems new game companies face - rising costs and growing competition for consumers‘ time. “To create a next-generation console game costs $40 million to $50 million,” he said. “That’s the same cost as a lot of movies.” With “World of Warcraft,” Blizzard changed the market, raising players’ expectations for how realistic a game will be. To accomplish that, the company spent an estimated $90 million, Drobish said. At first the budget seemed excessive, but now it looks brilliant, he said. Intense competition for consumers’ time has already affected traditional forms of entertainment. “Movies and TV are seeing a shift away from them because there are only so many hours in the day,” Walsh said. He foresees a bright future for games, but some industry observers think the same competition for people’s attention could hurt games, too. “People worry about crowding out,” Friedler said. “If someone is always on Facebook and MySpace and texting, how much time is left for games?”

In a surprise move, Sun Microsystems said it’s acquiring privately held open source database vendor MySQL AB for approximately USD 1 billion.Called the largest open source software deal ever, the merger makes Sun the owner of a critical part of the popular LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Perl/Python/PHP) open source software stack. Sun already has been offering up its own software to open source, even basing its development tools strategy on the open source NetBeans platform.Following completion of the proposed transaction, MySQL will be integrated into Sun’s Software, Sales and Service organizations and the company’s CEO, Marten Mickos, will be joining Sun’s senior executive leadership team. In the interim, a joint team with representatives from both companies will develop integration plans.With the move, Sun takes a big leap into the USD 15bn database market, which brings it into competition with companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. Acquiring MySQL also gives Sun entry to customers that may be interested in buying more equipment and software; MySQL counts Facebook, Google, Nokia and Baidu as customers.Open source CRM vendor SugarCRM, PHP tools vendor Zend Technologies, and SpringSource, makers of the open source Spring Framework for Java development applauded the deal. “I think open source has gone mainstream,” and Sun has put its stamp on it, said Zend CEO Harold Goldberg. “We think it’s a great day for open source, and we think it’s a great day for the LAMP stack.”As part of the transaction, Sun will pay about USD 800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assume about USD 200 million in options. The transaction is expected to close in late third quarter or early fourth quarter.

Flock, which was founded in 2005, allows users to easily monitor social-networking sites by integrating them into the browser. When a user logs into a site such as Facebook, Flock allows the user to see what is happening with their friends in its sidebar, keeping track of status and comments. If, for example, a friend uploads a picture, the user will get an update and be able to drag or share that picture with other friends in other social networks.

“This is not the old model to click on a website and go from site to site in a fragmented experience,” Flock chief executive Shawn Hardin said. “We have a core mission to put the user at the centre of their online universe”.

Hardin believes Flock’s browser experience is the biggest step in browser development since “Netscape took a stream of 0s and 1s and created a visual interface”.

The user experience is now changing from information being consumed to being communicated, according to Hardin, who hopes Flock will make an impact as big Netscape: “We aspire to be part of this key inflection, as Netscape was years ago.”

Hardin claims that since version 1.0 was released in November, users have been increasing by around 10 to 20 percent per week ?with a total of 2.5 million downloads over the last year. Hardin said this compares with 130 million Firefox users and 1.4 billion Internet Explorer users.

Although the demise of Netscape is sad, Hardin said, its spirit lives on: “Netscape is still at the heart of Firefox and Flock.” He added that a significant part of his development team created Netscape 8.

Hardin doesn’t see Flock as a direct competitor to Firefox because he is only interested in the 100 to 200 million users who are regular social-networking users.