November 12th, 2007
Open source keiretsu
Keiretsu, like sushi, is a charming Japanese concept which Americans have adapted, and transformed, nearly beyond recognition. (The explanation from which this was taken is in Italian.)
In Japan, sushi is a set of appetizers, enjoyed with sake and friends, which eases the salaryman’s way between the tension of work and the tension of dinner. It’s bar food.
At our house, it’s Thanksgiving dinner. Really. My kids don’t like turkey, so we’ll prep fish together, make rolls together, enjoy the day together. Even in normal American households, sushi is dinner. (Turkey sushi illustration from Cooks Recipes.)
The same with keiretsu. In Japan it refers to companies in unrelated industries lashed together through investments and directorships. It’s an extended corporate family.
In America, technologists have used the term for over a decade to describe far looser ties of investment and shared strategy. I’ve seen the term used here for over a decade, to identify small firms in the orbit of Microsoft, or IBM, or others.
Before my Japanese friends become offended, please understand we do this to everyone. The American word graft means corruption, while its original English meaning was hard work, as in “Cesq Fabregas scores goals but he also does the graft of tackling and defending.”
So are there keiretsu in open source? I would say yes. The significance of Novell’s Linux pact a year ago was that it became part of Microsoft’s open source keiretsu. This was not lost on anyone.
I have often read how Red Hat is part of an IBM keiretsu. This does not mean IBM owns Red Hat. It means the two companies work together closely, collaboratively.
The significance of yesterday’s New York Times story on Mozilla is that it correctly identifies the Mozilla Foundation as being, now, part of the Google open source keiretsu, tied to it with golden chains.
Sun may argue that the correct term here is ecosystem. Relationships with software vendors or resellers are important, but a keiretsu relationship, I argue, goes beyond this., often involving the exchange of corporate bodily fluids, like cash, or legal documents.
I would say there are three firms — Google, Microsoft, and IBM — which presently have the size, scope and ambition to control open source keiretsu, despite the efforts of keiretsu wannabes like Sun.
Please, feel free to disagree. And try the turkey maki.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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