How Microsoft uses open source to fight open source

Microsoft's strategy against open source uses authority. It ties up institutions that are authoritative, that have power over professions, creating a benefit for the institution that ties its members to proprietary Microsoft tools.

I have covered this extensively at ZDNet Healthcare regarding products like Amalga and Healthvault, but here is an example that goes beyond medicine and is specifically about open source.

The British Library is the authority here. It's a great library, with extensive online resources. It does a lot of outreach, too. The picture is from its business and IP centre, which targets entrepreneurs.

What Microsoft has done with the library is an open source project called the Research Information Centre Framework. It's a virtual research framework, helping them manage the increasingly complex range of tasks involved in 21st century research.

OK, where's the catch?

Built on top of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, the RIC extends the core MOSS functionality to meet the needs to academic researchers engaged in collaborative research projects

Gee, doc, you're not a Microsoft shop? Even if you can connect with these resources, you're always going to be second-class in a group project that depends on them.

Which is sort of the point. To Microsoft open source is not an end in itself. It is a marketing tool. It is a way to gain lock-in with important customer sets.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's the way of the world. But sometimes it's nice to look behind the nice worm and see the hook embedded therein, so you don't get caught.

The lady in the picture, by the way, is Mandy Haberman, an inventor best known for the Anywayup Cup. She is also a campaigner for patent rights.