Red Hat’s OpenSource.com: Where Are Channel Partners?
Talk about owning a market — or at least a term… In a savvy marketing move, Red Hat has launched opensource.com, a web site that strives to explore “the different ways that the open source way is already having a positive impact on business, education, law, government and our daily lives,” according to a Red Hat spokeswoman. But one quick question: Where are the channel partners?
Red Hat is positioning opensource.com as a “community service.” Translation: The company will try not to hype its own products and services on the site. Instead, Red Hat appears to be hoping for a halo effect: As customers and partners discover opensource.com, those readers may potentially discover Red Hat as well.
For the most part, the opensource.com moderator team has deep roots at Red Hat — ranging from Jeff Mackanic (business perspectives) to Greg DeKoenigsberg (government perspectives).
And opensource.com is easy to navigate — designed around five content areas:
- Business
- Education
- Government
- Law
- Life
No doubt, channel partners can weigh in on each of those topic areas. But The VAR Guy wishes Red Hat built an area on opensource.com that specifically discusses issues and opportunities for solutions providers.
Of course, the opensource.com site is just getting started. Our resident blogger needs to keep an open mind. And The VAR Guy will certainly keep an eye on opensource.com to see how the site evolves.
VAR Guy Readers – Especially Service Providers,
If you are looking to leverage the great Red Hat code-base to build a truly disruptive and value based service offering. You should take a peek at http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html . ClearOS is build off of Red Hat yet tailored for Service Providers.
In the near future you will find exclusive products and programs for Service Providers to build solid value based services and a simple recurring revenue model at http://www.clearcenter.com/Products/products.html . Watch for upcoming exclusive solutions for Service Providers in late Q1 2010.
Excited for what 2010 has in store and excited to grow with http://www.opensource.com.
Special thanks to Red Hat for all they have done and will do for the Open Source World!
Michael Proper
Michael: Always good to hear from you. Sorry The VAR Guy hasn’t been in touch lately. Be sure to fill out the Open Source 50 survey… And keep our resident blogger posted regarding those service provider relationships…
-TVG
Hey Var Guy! Thanks for the shout out — even though I’m covering the Education beat, it’s all good.
As you’ve noted, it’s a site that is issue-centric, rather than content-centric. But I happen to believe that education IT is an intensely local business, and right in the wheelhouse of smart local solutions providers.
An army of education VARs who know both the education space and the open source space is, I believe, a dream scenario. And if you have a vision about how to make that happen, then by God, you can have all the ink on opensource.com that you want.
Sigh. I meant to say “commerce-centric”. But the rest of my comment stands.
Greg: The VAR Guy appreciates the update. And our resident blogger will be watching Opensource.com closely. The VAR Guy has tracked the education market (K-12, higher education) since around 1998. No doubt, schools and colleges are among the first to test low-cost desktops and open source server applications (email and content management come to mind…).
Please keep The VAR Guy posted as solutions providers begin to check out opensource.com. Our resident blogger is intrigued.
-TVG