New open source releases drop for 2010

These are also the best times to release a new book. And it seems they may be the best to release (or drop as the hipsters say)  a new open source project. Developers may be looking for new challenges, and potential customers may have made saving with open source a New Year's resolution.

ZVEX has announced Inventobox, an open source guitar pedal. It's actually more of a Heathkit, with a circuit board, a module replicating three popular designs, and spare parts for $400. The announcement was made at a big music equipment show, illustrating how the DIY idea is infiltrating a wider variety of businesses.

Kaltura has released a video extension for Joomla, which goes alongside one it already released for Moodle. The idea of integrating video with other hosting applications, making every site a YouTube, has become popular, which is an opportunity for open source video tools.

Speaking of video, Sony has released its Open Shading Language through its ImageWorks unit. Originally created for in-house rendering, the language is already being used by professional rendering studios like Rhythm & Hues, and claims to be technically superior. With your help it can be superior-er. (Yes, I just made up a word. English was the first open source language.)

Virginia Tech has made its GenoCad, a gene sequencing tool, through the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), instantly adding to its credibility. The program will be offered on an Apache license. The school said their original concept was to offer it on a Web site, a sort of SaaS model, but this is better. By using Apache, developers retain full rights to their software, while maintaining ISCB redistribution.

As you can see from this early list, the big trend in open source for 2010 is already becoming clear. That is an expansion of the concept into areas well beyond traditional software. Movies, music, genetic research and more. Open source is already having a great year.