A center to advance the growth of the Open Technology industry was unveiled Tuesday, January 25, 2005, at a press conference that included Governor Kulongoski of Oregon, Stuart Cohen, CEO of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), Mayor Rob Drake of Beaverton and Jean S. Bozman, research vice president at IDC, a Boston-based market research firm.

"Open Technology" is a term for the computing and business strategy of sharing core technology. Open Technology allows developers to focus on the parts of their solution that add the greatest value and customers to pay for real value. An example of the business opportunity presented by open technology is the market for servers, desktops and packaged software running on Linux, which will reach $36 billion in 2008, growing at an annual rate of 26 percent from 2003 to 2008, according to an IDC study.

The Open Technology Business Center, created with $1.2 million from the city of Beaverton, is a first-of-its-kind facility dedicated to supporting the formation, funding and growth of new companies in the Open Technology sector. Programs include an Open Technology executive institute for advisors, educators, consultants and investors. Participating entrepreneurs will have unique access to industry thought leaders and domain experts. Qualified early-stage companies may locate in the center's facility through its "ventures-in-residence" program.

"The Center will bring together the best minds to analyze business implications of the Open Technology movement and conduct applied research to new business models," said LaVonne Reimer, executive director for the Open Technology Business Center. "This distinctive support will enable Open Technology start-ups to play their important role in accelerating the adoption of Open Technology innovations and products worldwide."

"The remarkable growth of Linux, one of the most successful examples of open technology to-date, has created opportunity for all sorts of new businesses from embedded solutions and servers to desktop computing, consumer electronics and software applications," said Stuart Cohen, chief executive officer of OSDL. "With Linux at the heart of the Open Technology movement, OSDL's support for the Center was a natural."

The new center began operation yesterday.