ECM Diet Time

Russ Stalter's BetterECM blog entry "Time for the Big Guys to Go on a Diet" commented on my Speed of Open Source Development post recently. Ironically, I recently asked my wife what she wanted for her birthday and she said for me to lose 20 pounds. Although I totally agree with Russ's comments, I can sympathize with how hard it is to lose the extra fat.

Yet there is the corporate equivalent of eating sensibly. For instance, I wanted to contact an old friend in EMC-Documentum recently. I asked him if he had a Skype address. He said that the EMC central IT organization in Hopkinton, MA didn't allow it. With developers and employees spread between two continents and points in between, Skype is an incredibly cheap and effective way to communicate. With headphones on and a good mike, you would swear that the person is sitting right next to you. And it's free! What a great way to save money.

Using Skype is not exactly like taking shampoo or toothpaste on an airplane. From what possible menace are the EMC IT guys trying to protect the corporation? Perhaps they thought that evil open source vendors would try to suck secrets out of them through cunning worm technology that snakes through the headphones and into the brain. Well to tell you the truth, there is no difference between a phone and Skype, except that Skype to Skype is better than a phone. And who is paying for the lost money? - the customer.

But these are the minor things - just like not eating snacks in between meals. Next comes the exercise regime. I once had a senior manager at a certain well known, very large ECM vendor that if you fired half the people in the office, it would make a bit of difference. It goes to show that big isn't better, it makes you slower. It means that probably about 40% of your costs are built into useless meetings to "get everyone on the same page." Do more work rather than sitting in a conference room. That's what we do - Alfresco only has one conference room and it is hot to sit in too long.

It doesn't take an open source business model to start saving the customers money. It takes willpower. Give up the 3 Martini lunch, get rid of useless meetings, make sure the IT department has the customer's interests in mind rather than their own. Of course the open source model can help create a lean, mean, fightin' machine.

Yep, diet and exercise. I wonder who will lose weight faster.

Comments

[Mike]

I totally agree with you. I also fully trust these companies, despite the paranoid approch I used in my previous post. I actually use both Google and Skype services :)

My goal was only to give an other point of view, and particularly the one some companies have on Skype.

Thank you for your well argued answer.

[John Newton]

Great post Michael. I took a look at the Skype black hat reference and it was very interesting. Not being a black hat, white hat, or even yellow hat, it was a bit hard to follow even what the objective was. It seems that the greatest danger to an organization is an attack by packets masquerading as Skype. It looks like there is a simple way to shut off Skype, but not separate it from obfuscated noise. How probable is his?

Aside from that, there is a need to trust Skype, which means trust eBay. eBay is essentially a trusted financial institution and will ultimately be regulated as such. They have far more to lose by abusing that trust. Just look at the latest moves by AOL to protect its reputation after it inadvertently posted anonymized user records.

At the moment, the information I put into Google is more valuable than I put into Skype. I long ago made the decision to trust Google and now I trust Skype. Alfresco is better off for doing so.

In addition, the value of a network grows exponentially with its size. (Metcalf's law?) All our employees and most of our customers are on Skype and I can establish a crystal clear conversation with them at no cost. That is worth something. If they are abusing my bandwith or cycles, from what I have seen so far it is worth it.

[Mike]

Money is not the only issue with skype ...

I agree that this service is an incredibly cheap ans effective way to communicate. I really enjoy this new way of communicating and making conferences in one click !

But it also has serious security issues ...

Skype is using a proprietary (and heavily encrypted) protocol, wich does not let you monitor what happens "on the line".

A good way to learn about this protocol is http://www.secdev.org/conf/skype_BHEU06.pdf

This documents shows some security issues skype was not communicating on, because they think security is obscurity ...

What's more, by installing skype, you give them (skype company) the right to use your bandwith and your CPU for "other applications" than phoning or chatting ! Please read carefully the EULA ... Skype can use your computer for P2P applications your're not aware of ...

By using Skype, your machines become a node on the Skype network, which means that you become a forwarding point for ALL the traffic Skype decides to send you.

What's more, skype is built to bypass most of firewalls by using common ports as HTTP one.

This is why skype is totally forbidden in many corps, and why it's forbidden to install it in many Government Agencies in Europe !

There is the difference between a free (as a beer) application and an open project.

There is free AND open (source and protocol) alternatives to skype, with the same business model :
http://www.gizmoproject.com/
http://www.openwengo.org/

The "skype way of phoning" is really great, an I can't imagine returning to classical phones, but the way skype implements it is a real security concern you have to think of.

Regards,

Michael