Open Source Business Conference Announces Keynote Speakers for San Francisco Event.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Keynotes for Feb. 14-15 event from Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, SpikeSource, SugarCRM, Clarium Capital, Stanford Law School, Open Source Applications Foundation

OSBC, LLC today announced the keynote schedule for the Open Source Business Conference(TM) (OSBC(TM)), the premier event for Open Source software and business, scheduled to be held February 14-15, 2006 at the Argent Hotel in San Francisco. Keynote speakers are from Sun Microsystems, Microsoft Corp., SpikeSource, SugarCRM and Clarium Capital, plus Mitch Kapor of the Open Source Applications Foundation, Nick Carr, author of "Does IT Matter?" and Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig.

OSBC is designed for IT business executives (buyers and vendors), venture capitalists, attorneys, and other decision-makers tasked with developing businesses that leverage Open Source software. It explores the legal, investment, vendor and customer risks, rewards, and opportunities presented by Open Source software. Listen to keynote speeches from:

--Nick Carr, Author of 'Does IT Matter?' on "Open Source: IT Matters Less and Less"

--Jonathan Schwartz, President & COO, Sun Microsystems, on "Open Source - Moving Beyond Just Software"

--Mitch Kapor, President & Chair, Open Source Applications Foundation, on "Beyond Open Source: The Future of Collaboration and the New Knowledge Commons"

--Martin Taylor, General Manager, Platform Strategies, Microsoft Corp.

--Kim Polese, CEO, SpikeSource, on "Free Markets in Software"

--John Roberts, CEO & Co-Founder, SugarCRM, on "Commercial Open Source: The Project-Powered Enterprise"

--Peter Thiel, President, Clarium Capital, on "Decentralization Is Over: Technology Becomes a Centralizing Force"

--Lawrence Lessig, Professor and Author, Stanford Law School, on "The Closing World and Open Source: Coexistence Possible?"

Two days of conference sessions and keynote presentations will explore controversial issues around building a business on Open Source software and offer insights to commercial success. Listen to Sun's President & COO explain how Open Source is driving software prices to zero...and why vendors should be happy about this; Microsoft's Martin Taylor discourse on the growing tide of Open Source...at Microsoft; Nick Carr address the rise of utility computing and how Open Source plays into this, making IT even less of a differentiator; Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and currently managing director of hedge fund Clarium Capital, talks about how technology, including Open Source software, increases the threat of centralized control; and many others. Additional speakers and panelists at Open Source Business Conference represent a wide range of industries, including:

Vendors: IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Sun Microsystems

Corporate Users: Bank of America, Google, Philips Electronics, Putnam Investments,

Law Firms: Goodwin Procter; Fenwick & West, Cooley Godward

Emerging Companies: MySQL, SugarCRM, Pentaho, Alfresco, OpenLogic, EnterpriseDB, Zimbra

Venture Capital: North Bridge Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Matrix Partners, Mayfield, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

For more information or to register for this event, please visit http://www.osbc.com.

About OSBC

The Open Source Business Conference(TM) is the only event that provides an educational forum for business leaders (both IT buyers and vendors), lawyers and venture capitalists focusing on the opportunities and challenges that open source technology presents. Attend this exceptional conference program led by well known thought leaders and industry executives and become part of the event where important issues are discussed and the future will be determined.