CIOs actually care about open source

I just heard the most shocking thing. I'm in the first day's closing keynote session at the Open Source Business Conference Boston, and asked the CIO panel a simple question:

"Do you actually care about open source? Do any of your organizations look at source code? Are you actively looking to buy more open source software?"

I expected them to say that they took a pragmatic approach; didn't care if it were open or closed, but paid for value; etc. After all, this was a very distinguished panel:

• Gary J. Beach (Editor, CIO Magazine)
  
• Ameet Patel (Former CTO, LabMorgan (JP Morgan Chase))
  
• Don Haile (President & CIO, Fidelity Investments)
  
• Ron Rose (CIO, Priceline.com)
  
• Jamie Cash (CIO, NLG)
  
• Barry Strasnick (CIO, CitiStreet)

What I heard, however, was shocking. Why? Because they said (universally), "Yes, we care about source code. Yes, we proactively seek out more open source. We like open source because we're pragmatic. The quality is very good. The support is excellent. [Note: Very little discussion of cost. That seems to be of secondary concern.] We are predisposed toward open source."

Wow. Clearly, open source has passed "the tipping point." (I dislike Gladwell's work, but I'll borrow the nomenclature.) Open source won't make a crappy company/product into a good one, but it's definitely the winning strategy going forward.

[All of which means you should attend OSBC San Francisco, February 14-15, 2006. :-) ]