Mar 19, 2011 11:43 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is more open to open source than ever, and only plans to step up its efforts. This is the message I received from a recent conversation with Gianugo Rabellino, Sr. Director - Open Source Communities at Microsoft. I wrote an article about Rabellino joining Microsoft in January 2011, and I jumped at the chance to do an interview with him, and deliver additional insight into the role of the new go-to guy for open-source communities at the Redmond company.

Those familiar with the software giant’s evolution in recent years know that Microsoft is putting code where its mouth is, so to speak, and web properties such as Interoperability Bridges make this perfectly clear.

But there are additional resources devoted to interoperability and Microsoft’s efforts when it comes down to open source, and I encourage you to check out Interoperability @ Microsoft, Port25 (here you can see some the amazing work that Peter Galli is doing), and last, but not least, Microsoft Open Source.

Below you will find Rabellino’s answers to my questions, but you can also contact him directly via his blog or Twitter account.

1. Please tell our readers a few details about yourself. 

I have been paying my bills with open source for the last 18 years or so, and counting. Back in 1992 I started using Linux, at that time it was Linux 0.99 patch level 15. Right from the start I was intrigued by the idea of a community built and managed software product, so much that in a couple of years I was co-founding the first official Linux support organization in Italy, the Italian Linux Society.

That meant that I was in touch with a number of people in the open source arena, and I was able to land a few jobs, and moving on more to the business side. Long story short, I went from the largest ISP now British Telecom Italia to a .com startup, to a company where I was doing security, and finally ending up in the company that gave birth to what I believe is today the largest open source integrator in Europe.

That kept me busy from 2005 to 2010 when I decided it was time to move on, and I got in touch with Microsoft. I had been working with Microsoft in the past, they had this wonderful position, so here I am.

From an open source perspective I’ve been mostly participating in Apache projects with the Apache Software Foundation, when I’m proud to be a member and a Vice President for a couple of projects. This is where most of my open source experience lays.

When it comes down to Apache, it’s all about community over code, and its importance in this software ecosystem. This is my background, I am a community guy, so I’m nothing but thrilled to be heading the community efforts for Microsoft.

2. Do you feel like the lamb in the lion’s den, now that you’re working for Microsoft? Joining Microsoft has been a source of many questions on my side. I always lived in Europe, I have two small kids, bringing them over to the US was not an easy choice. I wanted to be sure that I was doing the right thing.

I have been monitoring Microsoft for the past years and I saw an increasing amount of outreach to the community, of interest in open source. This has already been confirmed, and let me give you a reason for that.

It’s not about open source per se. I would have been very suspicious if I would have been pitched a job position where I was supposed to do open source for the sake of open source. The idea is that open source fits a precise business position, so there are reasons for Microsoft to do open source. And this is what convinced me that no, I’m not a lamb in a lion’s den.

Microsoft is doing genuine efforts because it understands the value of open source and why it’s helpful to our business and ultimately to our customers.

3. Is Microsoft now a friend to open source?

I would think so, yes. It’s definitely a friend to me, and I’m a friend to open source. So a friend of a friend… If you look at the number of efforts, if you look at the number of initiatives that Microsoft has in the open source field, you can argue that it’s doing its share in the OS community ecosystem.

The idea is that what drives everything is some business pragmatism. So while we can use the word friend, I am more convinced that this is going to be a long-lasting relationship, if we think about what in for both sides. What are the mutual interests?

In this case Microsoft is committed to being open, and more open that anyone might think. This is the usual surprise. And I was surprised myself of how open Microsoft is.

4. Do you believe Microsoft solutions and open source products can be complementary? Absolutely, yes. I’ve always been a sound believer in mixed IT. Basically, the licensing model, the distribution model, is just one part of a software product. Sometimes it makes more sense to be proprietary, a number of times it makes more sense to be open source. Another number of times it might be the case that different pieces are open source and others are proprietary.

In the end what you get is harmony, and not something that’s monotone, it’s more of an ecosystem, and you need everything. Mixed IT is something I strongly believe in, and I believe that in the future we’re going to see more open source and more proprietary interoperating in superior fashion.

Not to mention that the concept of Cloud changes everything, blurring even more the line between proprietary and open source.

5. What about Microsoft’s efforts in terms of interoperability? Can you tell us more on that?

To me, interoperability is one of the key pillars of modern IT. Nowadays we’re running all sorts of machines, all sorts of operating systems, and they are everywhere, on-premise, on our desktops, in our pockets, or they can be somewhere in the Cloud.

We need to build truly interoperable solutions. 20 – 30 years ago, most computers were not connected to one another. Today this has changed dramatically, and it’s evolving at a fast pace, so interoperability is key to ensure that IT platforms can evolve.

Microsoft is incredibly committed to interoperability, to making sure that our solutions are able to talk to third-party solutions. To that extent, open source is a perfect place to play the interoperability game.

It’s not just about open source, but also open standards, open specifications, about making sure that we can interoperate by not only trying to put our platforms together but also seeing what is under-the-hood. So this is why open source is key to interoperability, and this is also why open source is so important to Microsoft.

I’m not in a Microsoft office doing nothing but open source, I’m doing community outreach, so that we can build interoperable solutions, and this is based on open source. This makes our efforts sustainable, because we have a beacon, we have a reason. We have a clear path in front of us.

6. Is it just about the open source communities? Can businesses dealing with open source also come to you?

My role with Microsoft is twofold. On the one hand, I am tasked with being the open source community go-to guy. What I’m aiming at is being a point of contact for all communities to come to Microsoft and talk to us, tell us what we’re doing wrong, what right and what we can do together.

The other side of my role is more inward facing, and it involves making the round in all the product groups at Microsoft, since all of them have invested efforts in open source and get them to reach out to open source communities.

You can think of me as the ultimate open source community guy. While the role is focused on communities, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have responsibilities with communities in general.

We have an amazing number of people in Microsoft that are doing open source in spite of their daily job. Personally, I’m extremely focused on communities, and I think it’s very important to be. So being the go-to guy for open source communities is all that I want and it’s plenty on my plate.

7. Can you share a few details about what you have done so far since joining Microsoft, and what you plan to do in the future?

I’m looking to have an incredible mileage count. Microsoft is a global company and I’m definitely going to visit each and every office.

I want to go where the open source communities are, and I’m not just talking about the big worldwide communities, like the Apache Software Foundation, Mozilla or the Linux Foundation, I’m also interested in the grassroots communities like the user groups.

In Belgium, I had amazing conversations with a number of PHP community folks, and this is how you get to understand what they really need, what they’re looking for and how we can help. Sometimes is just about how can we make the PHP experience on Azure better?

Any friction can be eliminated by having a constant communication stream. You can expect me to visit all countries around the world, and I encourage everyone to get in touch with me if they have questions. I’m already helping a few communities, with very specific issues.

8. What’s the core message that Microsoft wants to send to open source communities?

We are more open that you might think. And we want to work with you. So please do reach out, because I’m looking forward to getting in touch with everyone, and try to understand how we can work together better in the future.

(Transcribed from audio – some editing was required for clarity)