Yugma Proposes Venue for Show Us The Code Deadline

Yugma is reaching out to Linux community and Microsoft for May 1 “Show Us The Code” deadline

[Note inserted on June 3: View youtube video to see what happened at the 5/1/2007 meeting.]

Yesterday, I issued an invitation to both the Show Us The Code and Microsoft communities regarding a virtual “sit down” for the May 1, 2007 deadline. Yugma’s web collaboration software would enable key players from both groups to join a live session and present their sides.

As many of you know, in a letter to Steven Ballmer, the Linux community has requested that individuals “Publicly pledge your support for Microsoft showing the public the code within Linux that violates their intellectual property by May 1st, 2007. “ Through an open invitation to key players and observers, we intend to provide a forum for each side to address the other.

We’ve been watching this movement and wondering what would materialize on May 1 to complete this debate. Since people all over the world may want to participate, we wanted to offer a solution that would work regardless of geographic location and platform. We’re hoping that we can be one of the catalysts to end this question of code ownership.

The full text of the letter follows:

OPEN LETTER TO: Linux Community & Microsoft

My name is Karel Lukas, and I'm the COO at a web collaboration company called Yugma. I've been following the Show Us The Code movement and Microsoft’s position closely, and understand how important this issue is for the future vitality of the Open Source and Linux communities.

As the May 1^st deadline approaches, we at Yugma have been wondering what the ultimate conclusion of this debate will be. Will it quietly fizzle out? Will Microsoft continue to press their case and ignore the challenge? As we are approaching the May 1^st deadline, we propose that we all collectively drive this debate to a proper conclusion.

Yugma is about to launch our Linux version, which will make our collaboration service interoperable between Linux, Mac, and PC. We think that makes us the perfect platform for hosting a virtual "sit-down" between the Show Us The Code movement and Microsoft on the day of the deadline.

For this event, we are offering to host a live debate between the Show Us The Code group and Microsoft on May 1^st. Microsoft can present the alleged offending code live. Leaders from the Linux community can respond. Yugma will record the session and make it available to both parties afterwards for their own distribution. The date, time, and meeting information follows:

Date/Time: May 1, 2007 at 12:00 Noon Pacific Time
Place: www.yugma.com (click Join Session button)
Teleconference Bridge: +1-218-486-3889
Yugma Session ID: 109-433-046

We think Yugma would be a great venue for educating more people (and the Tech press) about the Show Us The Code movement as well as Microsoft’s position. We are in the process of contacting key contacts within both organizations to identify the key participants for the event. Likewise, key contacts from the Linux community and from Microsoft can contact us at showusthecode@yugma.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . We will be exhibiting at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco April 16-18. If any of you will be there, please stop by the Yugma booth and we can discuss in person (booth #322).