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The fear mongering is in full force. The news is full of bank failures, an ongoing housing crisis, and gas prices that won’t go down. Sounds gloomy, eh?

But it isn’t all bad. Open source is poised for a boom. According to OStatic.com, more and more businesses are switching to open source to cut costs and increase value:

“The adoption of OSS continues to increase among banks and investment services firms. Among the investment services firms surveyed, approximately 84 percent expect to be using open source software by the end of 2008. Adoption is most notable in this category because they are impacted by escalating transaction volumes and data processing requirements as well as cost pressures.”

Once again, economic pressures and recessionary environments force businesses to trim fat and get more efficient. This proves the value and long-term benefits of running an open infrastructure. The thinning years prove the meddle of any technology, and it’s great to see confidence in the open source model in times that test any business model.

I was just thinking today how much I like the power of social marketing. DataSync has undergone an astounding transformation over the past year from a bricks and morter IT shop to a full fledged Web 2.0 company. Our original marketing efforts focused on old school sales techniques: door to door, cold calling, beating the street. The result is a rough sales model that costs a ton to implement.

Enter social media. We now get thousands of visitors each month to our website. We participate in the community and value creating strong relationships. Some guys from our network team just created a new website – whatan00b.com for new linux users. We’re all about helping build the ecosystem, and it’s amazing how strong the response has been.

So for those of you who are trying to generate interest the traditional way, think again. We’ve cut marketing costs and increased traffic with using smart methods. To top it all off, we love participating! Open source is all about moving the ecosystem forward, and we’re psyched to help make that happen! If you’re interested in learning more about social media, feel free to drop me a line and I’d be happy to share what’s worked for me.

So we’ve finally finished our first major integration project! The team released a major upgrade to our web software platform – DataSync Suite. From the press release:

DataSync, the development company behind the popular open source integration package DataSync Suite, is proud to annouce the release of DataSync Suite 0.5 beta. Praised by pre-beta testers, DataSync Suite is positioned for explosive growth. DataSync Suite 0.5 features Zimbra/SugarCRM integration, which allows users to archive email from Zimbra directly into SugarCRM using an intuitive AJAX interface. DataSync Suite 0.5 also adds effective administration tools that give admins the ability to add/remove users from all applications with a single operation. Updated documentation is available on the DataSync wiki.

DataSync Suite is based on Web 2.0 open source technology and heavily utilizes Zope 3 for its application framework. DataSync has recently released an aggressive development roadmap for the continued growth of their flagship product.

Good stuff. Kudos to the engineering team to hit this deadline and launch the product!

Last week wind energy got another big vote of confidence – T. Boone Pickens. This guy is an oil baron who’s actually putting his money where is mouth is on alternative energy. He’s throwing some dough (right now $2 billion) and a lot of media at the problem of oil dependence. He’s betting on wind as the most viable means to solve our energy problem.

I’m a fan. Maybe it’s because I live in South Dakota where it’s windy all the time, but it just makes sense. Use the wind to turn something, capture the energy generated, and then power the surrounding area without any moving infrastructure. No digging stuff out of the ground, cooking corn that we could eat, or nuclear power plants that tend to leak radioactive uranium.

If I had capital at my discretion I would seriously consider investing in wind. The nation hasn’t really figured out its energy problem just yet, but when we do I think wind will be a big part of it. I actually know a guy who was doing the whole wind thing before it had traction, and he foretold a lot of what’s happening today. He doesn’t see it slowing down, and I don’t either.

I know a lot of people think ethanol is the answer. Ethanol is a good idea, but I don’t think we can grow enough corn and grass to make a significant dent in our energy requirements. Yes, it’s a part of the solution, but I think a pretty small part (under 5%).

So we’ll see if wind does what I think it will. I think you’ll see wind generators dotting the horizon all over the Midwest in the next decade.

Silicon Grassland - Photo taken near Humbolt, SD by Mike Vetter

It’s up! But what is it? Silicon Grassland is a place for cutting edge technology news from the heart of the prairie. I hail from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, not somewhere you first thing of technology. However that’s the irony of it all – we’re living on the leading edge of technology and are located nowhere near Silicon Valley, the traditional place for innovation.

This blog is dedicated to all things relating to technology, business, and open source thinking. I run a tech company called DataSync that builds an open source web platform for deploying business applications. We’re passionate about what we do, and this blog will be heavily influenced by what I’m up to in this venture.

Stay tuned for much about great technology, innovation, and progress.

Regards,

Mike Vetter