John Terpstra

John is a well known contributor and visionary in the open source community with a very active commercial focus. He is co-founder of the Samba-Team, and a member of the Open Source Software Institute Advisory Board. He has worked with the LSB, Li18nux (now OpenI18N.Org), is a best selling author of "The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide", "Samba-3 by Example", "Hardening Linux" and has other books in production. John is a well regarded author and contributor to Linux for business web sites and magazines.

John is an accomplished presenter who has captured the minds of audiences around the world with compelling information regarding the use of Linux and Open Source software. He is a strong advocate for the sharing of knowledge without intellectual property constraint, but at the same time favors a high degree of confidentiality in respect of business methods.

John has worked with The SCO Group (previously Caldera Inc.), TurboLinux Inc., in VP level positions. Prior to moving to the USA in 1999, John founded and managed Aquasoft Pty Ltd (Aust.) for 10 years.

He has a Graduate Diploma in Marketing (with Credit), UTS Aust. and an Applied Science Certificate in Chemistry, QUT (Aust.).

The IT Road Ahead: Driving Home

This talk reviews the progress made by Open Source Software from 1980 over a 25 year period. It compares market developments of commercial and OSS and examines critical points of divergence.

Following a brief overview of business and political trends in general, this talk then identifies the most critical steps for those who are serious about protection of their business, while at the same time making the most of emerging technologies to create new profitable business growth.

The presentation finishes with a summary of the ten key decisions that will shape the future.

Presentation Slides: PDF