October 2008 - Vol. 51 No. 10

The concept of ecosystem is about to be brought into the digital age where, instead of plants and animals, the digital species who roam the landscape include software components, applications, services, business models, contractual frameworks and laws. Along with understanding the nature of habitat and the significance of localisation, diversity is one of the key characteristics of a healthy ecosystem. However, encouraging diversity in the context of technology production brings with it significant challenges, and designing a framework for governance that can balance interests, address technology lock-in and enable the co-existence of diverse software production methods quickly becomes a priority, as participants in the Digital Business Ecosystem project have found.

Nothing captures Japanese offshoring practices better than the old Japanese proverb "Tap the stone bridge before crossing." As global IT offshoring continues to grow at an astounding pace, the seemingly impenetrable Japanese market baffles many offshore IT vendors. On one hand, Japanese industries are among the most software-intensive, yet they appear reluctant when it comes to offshoring.