Popularity of Open source databases

Open source databases come with the advantage of being free, available for understanding, modification, and improvement as per needs.

There are three ways of using an open source database - do-it-yourself, thirdparty, and outsourcing. The choice of an open source database depends on factors, such as the intended usage, duration of use, and the cost involved as the main factor. Often the best comparison is obtained by first-hand evaluation.

Players: The top three vendors in the database market are: Oracle, IBM (DB2 and Informix), & Microsoft (SQL Server). In the open source market, there are six important
players (on the basis of acceptance in the software community
at large):
1. MySQL - GNU (General Public License) as well as commercial
2. PostgreSQL - BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution)
license
3. Firebird - Initial Developer's Public License (IDPL)
4. Ingres - GNU General Public Licensev2
5. MaxDB (earlier known as SAP DB, it is being developed in alliance with MySQL especially for SAP environments) - GPL
6. HSQLDB - BSD license

Popularity

The popularity of an open source database seems like a trivial concern to the technical community, but the fact stands tall that a product’s success is based on other reasons in addition to the technical features. Some of these are:

a) Support available from community as well as tool vendors
b) Momentum of the product being released in and open source arena
These are the two most important business concerns for choosing an open source product. The former ensures integrity with various other technologies and the latter ensures that open source is not going to die or fade out easily.

The six open source databases that we selected fare differently on the popularity aspect.

• MySQL - most popular open source database boasting more than 8 million active installations. Starting since 95 (internally), the MySQL community is the largest and has frequent releases; version 4.1 came out in Apr-03, current version 5.0 in Aug-04, and the much-talked and awaited future release version 5.1 is out as beta since Nov-05.

• PostgreSQL - has hundreds of companies listed as Users. The community is as old as Aug-96. It is much-adored among technical jig wigs for its huge support of features.
EnterpriseDB is a product built over it. Last few releases have been version 7.4 in Nov-03, current version 8.0 in Jan-05, and the new release 8.1 in Nov-05.

• Firebird - about 0.1 million deployments as of Sep-05. This is a very old community since Sep-84 and has a huge fan following for the number of good and bad times it has been through. The versions out are version 1.0 in Mar-02, current v1.5 in Feb-04 and 2.0 alpha is out there.

• Ingres - about 5000 existing customers. After changing many hands, the product has been made available to open source since ‘04, though it has been in existence along with
PostgreSQL. The current release - r3 is out since Aug-04 and r4 is much-awaited for its support to materialized views.

• MaxDB - about 6000 customer installations. This has been specific to Mobile application development earlier known as SAPDB. Started since Oct-00. It was available in version 7.6 in Nov-05

• HSQLDB - 0.3 million downloads. The project is finding hard to get contributions and is slower than others. It is the youngest in the group, formed since 01. It released 6 versions since Apr-01. Platform Support also speaks about the popularity and acceptance. Regarding the OS, we have major players as Linux, UNIX, Apple, and Windows. Besides, we also have Novell with Netware and BSD.

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The Impact of Social Commerce on Ecommerce

Venture specialist Dave Beisel first coined the term “social commerce” to refer to the integration of e‐commerce with social networking. According to PR executive and blogger Steve Rubel, “Social commerce can take several forms, but in sum it means creating places where people can collaborate online, get advice from trusted individuals, find goods and Ideation services  and then purchase them. It shrinks the research and purchasing cycle by creating a single destination powered by the power of many.”

Wikipedia describes social commerce (also known as social shopping) as a subset of  e‐commerce solution in which the active participation of customers and their personal relationships are at the forefront. The main element of this new trend is customers’ involvement in the marketing of products being sold, e.g. their recommendations and comments through blogs and shopping lists. This phenomenon enables customers to interact with one another in order to make better buying decisions by capturing and structuring “word‐of‐mouth” around product recommendations and reviews.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL COMMERCE ON ECOMMERCE

Social Networking sites are a key target for online advertising, as SNS users say peers and colleagues hold more influence over their purchases than any other source of information. Furthermore, Compete, Inc. reports that SNS users spend nearly 25% of their disposable income on online purchases. The recent boom in online advertising has also provided social networking sites a way to convert website traffic into dollars without charging members a subscription fee. The advent of Google's AdWords advertising program has been an especial boon, as it allows sites to place keyword based ads alongside content like users profiles. “Networking sites provide some of the most powerful word‐of‐mouth‐marketing opportunities there have ever been,” says Nancy Costopulos, Chief Marketing Officer at the American Marketing Association. “It's past the fad zone and into the reality zone.”

Another survey by AMA found that 47% of consumers said they would use social networks to discuss and find holiday gift ideas; 29% would buy products through those sites; 51% would look for discounts on social networks; 51% would download coupons; and 18% would read or write product reviews.

According to online marketing firm The ClickZ Network, “‘Brand Advocates’ spread opinions via word of mouth, as well as over social networks, instant messaging, chat, photo sites and blogging. Such advocates have at least a two‐to‐one rate of converting an actual friend or family member to buy the same exact product or brand they support, according to the report.” E‐Consultancy’s Social Commerce Report 2007 found that 67% of online retailers say that a social networking strategy is a medium‐to‐high priority for investment.

A recent study commissioned by social networking giant MySpace reported that business‐to‐consumer messaging could create considerable value when combined with consumer‐to‐consumer messaging. Following up on this study, MySpace recently introduced a hyper targeting program that allows advertisers to pick "enthusiast" audiences from ten categories of interests: music, movies, personal finance, gaming, consumer electronics, sports, travel, auto, fashion and fitness. Similarly, Facebook allows “endorsements” on its site and encourages members to subscribe to brands. Forrester Research observes, “As these ‘Fan‐Sumers’ share their affinities, brands can advertise using trusted social relationships.”

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