Red Hat's the newest cool kid on the Web 2.0 block? What are they
thinking?
http://www.linuxpipeline.com/188700965
Red Hat's 'Mugshot' Breaks Company's Enterprise Linux Mold
Tool is designed to supplement, not replace, existing digital
entertainment and social-networking sites.
Red Hat Inc. has veered from its usual offering of corporate-ready
Linux with the launch of an open-source project that lets users share
music and other entertainment-related content through online social
networks, blogs and Web sites.
Mugshot, unveiled Wednesday, places Red Hat in an Internet world
favored by teenagers and young adults on sites like MySpace, rather
than the company's usual haunts of corporate IT.
Designed and developed as an open-source community project, Mugshot
is meant to complement, rather than replace, entertainment services
such as Apple Computer's iTunes and Yahoo Music, or social-networking
sites, such as MySpace.
Red Hat, based in Raleigh, N.C., launched Mugshot as an experiment in
taking the open-source development philosophy of collaboration for
the benefit of all to Web content, Donald Fischer, product manager
for Mugshot, said Thursday.
"Matthew (Szulik), our chief executive, has painted a broader vision
for Red Hat than just the enterprise and Linux," Fischer said.
While intending to remain focused on corporate Linux, Red Hat wants
to see where else open-source development can take it. While Mugshot
may seem unrelated to the needs of companies, it's not unusual these
days to see technology that started in the consumer market find use
within companies. Examples include instant messaging, blogs and wikis.
"Our corporate customers are excited to see innovation like this,"
Fischer said.
Red Hat, for example, says it could incorporate live social
experiences into its client products, or offer commercial services
around future versions of the Mugshot software. There are no formal
plans, however, to incorporate Mugshot in Red Hat Enterprise Linux or
Fedora Core distributions.
Mugshot currently offers two services, Link Swarm and Music Radar.
The former uses existing instant messaging services for sharing Web
links quickly with individuals or groups, and getting immediate
feedback when people visit the links. The latter is for publishing
play lists or song histories from iTunes and Yahoo Music and other
services on a Web site, blog or MySpace page.
Both Mugshot services are currently available through invitation
only. People, however, can sign up for notification when the services
are generally available.
Under development is a third service called TV Party that would
involve "creating a live social experience around TV and video," the
Mugshot site said.
Red Hat has dedicated only a small team of seven full-time employees
to the project, Fischer said. The company is banking on the open-
source community to provide a large portion of the development work.
"It's definitely not a sink the ship kind of activity," Fischer said
of the Mugshot project in regards to Red Hat.
The Mugshot client software is currently available for Windows XP and
Linux, with limited support for Apple OS X. The site includes a blog
for development updates.
--
Kiran Jonnalagadda
http://www.pobox.com/~jace
