Over the past three years, the industry discussion regarding the role of source code access, software development practices and software business models has matured. The strong commercialization of open source software by both traditional software vendors and open source software providers alike has moved the focal point of the debate away from the philosophical and more towards the practical.

Organizations expect the software they use to provide the highest value for money possible, regardless of the development model used to create the technology. The pressure is on software producers and providers to respond to these expectations. Source code represents one area of opportunity in which organizations can deliver value. Source code access to commercial software improves custom development projects, security and privacy reviews, self support and deployment engineering.

Microsoft is sharing source code with customers, partners and governments worldwide through its Shared Source Initiative. More than 700,000 developers are now working with our shared source code, covering technologies such as Windows, .NET and Windows CE.

Jason Matusow, Microsoft's Shared Source Manager, discusses the effects of the open source software model and how the benefits of this model may be applied to commercial software. Matusow also provides details on the Shared Source offerings from Microsoft and how organizations are improving their information technology solutions through interaction with source code.

[This presentation was recorded at the Open Source Business Conference 2004 held in San Francisco, CA. An PDF file of this presentation's graphics is available. See the complete list of OSBC 2004 presentations on IT Conversations.]

As manager of the Shared Source Initiative at Microsoft Corp., Jason Matusow is responsible for working with internal and external constituencies to establish the company-wide framework for Microsoft’s global source licensing strategy. Matusow consults with governments, corporations, academics and analysts globally on the business implications of software intellectual property issues. He has been in the software industry for 10 years and with Microsoft since 1995, holding both technical and policy positions in that time.