I was at rSmart's EDUCAUSE reception last week when Brad Wheeler grabbed my attention. He told me the new news about blackboard's latest deceptions which, of course, Michael Feldstein reliably picked up. As I thought about them planting a spy and spinning the public perception one way, corporate activities another... I thought how glad I am to be part of something entirely different.

Open source is so much more than just free access to the source code. It's a different set of values and behaviors that start with openness and transparency. It's liberating to be part of an open source community and in particular, and open source company. At rSmart, like the Sakai and Kuali communities we're a part of, we don't spend our energy (and our client's money) managing deception... we spend it supporting them and our colleagues in the open source communities...