The best new open-source companies

There were a slew of new open-source companies launched (or still getting first looks) at last week's Open Source Business Conference. A few sites (Socialized Software and ZDNet, to name two of them)have been pointing to some of the more promising ones.

Here are a few to watch:

• Acquia - Drupal-based social/web content management company
• Ringside Networks - Social networking platform/application server
• Loopfuse - Marketing automation (Disclosure: I'm an advisor to Loopfuse)
• Projity - Microsoft Project competitor

And more. Check out the sites above to see who else caught the eye. Interestingly, JBoss executives sit on the management teams of several of them. As the market grows, there will be more cross-breeding between commercial open-source projects. This is a Very Good Thing.

It will be a few years, but I can't wait until Zimbra and MySQL have loosed their golden handcuffs so that they can start new companies, too. That's how the open-source business market will be enriched and grow.

[jwhatcott]

Thanks for the mention and thanks for organizing OSBC. It is one of the most useful conferences I've been to in a long time. All the people I wanted to talk to were there, and we made a multitude of useful connections. And the fact that everyone seemed to want to learn more about Acquia made it even more fun ;-).

Jeff Whatcott
Acquia