Three new open source CEOs
Word on the street is that three open-source companies will be getting new leadership in the next few weeks. I'm really excited about one of the changes, as it involves bringing in an open-source savvy person to an open-source savvy company. Match made in heaven, right?
For the other two, it's not clear yet that the benches are deep in open-source talent. It's hard to find people who are great managers, compelling visionaries, and open-source friendly, all at the same time. We're getting there, but it's tough growing open-source experience. It takes time. There are no shortcuts.
For anyone looking, some people who come to my mind are Tom Barton (early executive at Cygnus/Red Hat and then CEO of Rackable), Matt Harris (my old boss at Lineo and then at Volantis), the JBoss and Red Hat crowds (some excellent people from both, but many are currently employed), and others.
For everyone else, just wait until the handcuffs come off at MySQL, XenSource, Zimbra, etc. We need that experience starting new companies...after they finish building their existing companies.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
