Posted on 08/15/2005 3:47:15 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
China stakes its claim to become the next IT outsourcing superpower, with an emphasis on open source
It may have been the worst conference presentation I've ever seen. Behind it, however, was one of the most compelling trends in the IT industry today.
In a conference room tucked away on the second floor of San Francisco's Moscone West convention center, a scant handful of reporters had gathered at LinuxWorld Expo 2005 to hear a sales pitch. But this wasn't your everyday vendor briefing. Doing the selling was a consortium of Chinese software companies called the Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center (BSIPC), there to promote Beijing as not merely the capital of China but also "Asia's Linux Capital."
The emergence of China as a global economic power has been one of the key trends of this century. Relaxed economic and regulatory conditions have opened U.S. markets to Chinese companies in ways previously unthinkable. In manufacturing, China is already an unstoppable juggernaut. Little wonder, then, that Chinese companies would now be looking for ways to provide goods and services higher up the value chain.
Sure enough, the BSIPC delegation opened its press conference with a 15-minute video presentation that did its earnest best to paint Beijing as Bangalore North and then some. Skyscrapers leapt to the clouds, models strutted the runways, neon lights blazed above the bustle of cars and people as they moved the wheels of industry. And, of course, computers were everywhere. Chinese teens, we were told, now enjoy Internet cafés "more than almost any other entertainment."
Looking past the razzle-dazzle, however, the BSIPC offered some provocative figures. Beijing is now home to some 150,000 software development facilities, serving about 5,500 software and IT service industry companies. In 2004, software development was a $6.4 billion industry in Beijing, the result of an annual growth of roughly 30 percent since the year 2000. Exports currently account for $227 million of that figure.
Could China really overtake more established nations like India and Russia in the IT and software development outsourcing market? It's possible, yet doing business in Asia carries with it a unique set of concerns for U.S. companies.
The BSIPC made a valiant effort to gloss over the West's unease at Asia's poor track record for IP (intellectual property) protection. "In Beijing, copyright registration takes just one week," the video presentation offered cheerfully. "And it's free!" But the BSIPC actually had an answer to the IP question that was far more compelling than streamlined bureaucracy. It wasn't just selling outsourcing. It was selling open source.
When the software is free and open to begin with, IP concerns move to the background. After all, why not open source? The areas of an enterprise most ripe for outsourcing are those areas that are nondifferentiating or provide no competitive advantage. Not coincidentally, those same areas are prime candidates for collaborative software development, as open source advocates like Bruce Perens will explain.
But there was another concern in evidence at the press conference, and that was the one I mentioned earlier: This may have been the worst conference presentation I've ever seen. The reason, unfortunately, had everything to do with the language barrier.
Following the video, BSIPC director Hu Qinghua delivered his opening comments to glassy-eyed reporters through a translator. Of the BSIPC members who spoke, only the representative from Sun Wah Linux seemed fluent enough in English to engage the audience; others just read prepared speeches from paper. And the provided press materials were as slipshod as they were slick and colorful, full of the typos and malapropisms that fans of imported video games adore.
Nothing against Mandarin, mind you; it's a beautiful language. But one lesson companies engaged in offshore outsourcing learn early is that establishing clear communications channels throughout the development process is paramount. Fail there, and costs and failure rates start climbing immediately. Compared with countries such as India or the Philippines, where English fluency among software developers is virtually universal, outsourcing to China seems like a tough sale.
Though the BSIPC delegation was certainly eager, I couldn't help but come away with the feeling that Beijing as the new Bangalore was an idea whose time had not yet come. Still, though the Chinese IT outsourcing superpower hasn't arrived yet and there are still hurdles to overcome, it's on its way. If the BSIPC successfully communicated one message at LinuxWorld, it's that in IT and software development -- as in manufacturing before them -- China will not be ignored.
Of course, any company that tries to make nice with the Chi Coms will get burned. Microsoft should have been far more wary than they have been. Now it's too late.
it can't be tied to linux because linux has no central base - it started and exists because developers all over the world have access to the same source code.
It's not the linux got special treatment - it's that it was different from the start. Something golden turkey doesn't like.
For your ping list. Golden eagle is in fine "head in the sand" form today.
That is one interesting link, and unfortunately quite possible. Microsoft's biggest competitor, IBM, praised the Clinton administration's policies and is also very cozy with the Chinese, recently "giving" them the $10 billion/year IBM PC business for $1.5 Billion, total, not to mention huge contributions to open source software.
My position is simple: America's technology should be protected, and if it leaves the country, it should only go to our allies, and for a price.
The open source philosophy you support is in direct conflict with that: give everyone, all of it, for free.
Some people just don't get it. Blackbird.
Why are you against freedom?
Last month I heard about a local nonprofit that was looking for a custom written web enabled application system. They had spoken to several vendors and had quotes between $10k and $30k for the project (30k from the domestics, 10k from the outsourcers). I brought this up to my employer and we all agreed that the nonprofit was a good one, so we offered to do the project for free, allowing them to keep their money for more worthwhile causes.
I guess that makes us communist too...after all, we deprived those poor, downtrodden capitalists of their profit margins.
Perhaps you should look up the definition of charity. Open source isn't communism, it's talented people giving away their work for the good of mankind. Software, in the near future, will be a worthless commodity. To say that those of us who are giving our software away are somehow traitors to the US is both melodramatic AND factually incorrect.
your psosition isn't worth the electrons it took to get to this server.
You will ignore facts about how microsoft behaves with regards to the chinese government, OR you make excuses, OR you will cozy up to the chinese just like microsoft does (well, golly gee, they're bound by an AGREEMENT and all...they wouldn't do anything sneaky *cough* loral *cough* would they???)
A man whose 'moral' ideals shift based on personal biases isn't much of a man at all.
Wow, so.... open source is a "communist" thing?
Hmmmmmmmmmm, who knew.
It's a stretch.
"GNU gives anyone the right to distribute and redistirbute the software and even charge for it. That's how it works. "
You are 100% CORRECT. I happily PAID for my Linspire :)
Most people who are against open source are so misguided it's laughable.
"America's technology should be protected"
Some pooter geek may come by and correct me, I think UNIX is "American made"...but I believe Linus Torvalds is not a US national, thus I don't think LINUX is US "property".
I could be wrong though...
It's pretty much all he's got.
He thinks that developers volunteering their time to build an OS that helps them and others work more efficiently is a communist idea. No way you should use your expertise to improve on something for yourself or someone else without being paid. It should go through a giant corporation where they can delay fixing bugs for months and integrate unique, vital features like a talking paperclip or an animated dog that runs around while you search for a file on your computer.
Screw stability! Screw lowered operating expenses! Give me Microsoft BOB or give me, uh, something else!!!
Oh, lots of people. Starting with the ones at http://www.communism.org, or the definition of communism at the open source encyclopedia http://www.wikipedia.org. Or find your favorite search engine and enter "communism" and "open source", and behold. No excuses for you from here on, though.
The guy writes this entire article but he cannot toss us a single new
"All youre Linux are belong to us!"
Geesh, I was hoping for some new taglines.
LOL!!!
Golden Turkey....
good Lord this guy couldn't see past his own nose...
Microsoft is SOOOOOO 1998.....
:)
It's soooo nice to have 'enemies' that shoot themselves in the foot time after time.
Yep.
Open Source is obviously the way to the future but the My-your-soft bots can't possibly see that....
For all on the forum "portions of the code" is about 97%..
Who thinks its ok for SCO to violate copyright?
While you, of course, prefer 100% access to the code, along with the right of these foreign governments to copy it, rename it, even resell it under a name like "Red Flag". Just to be clear.
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