OpenI as a “BI platform” on its own will discontinue. We will do a 2.0 general release just so we don’t stay in RC mode forever, but that will probably be the last “platform release”

Going forward, we plan to use Pentaho and/or JasperServer as our base platform (and others as applicable). The approach is to release “OpenI plug-ins” for Jasper and Pentaho — so that those platforms behave/appear in a manner very similar to OpenI. In other words, if you deploy Pentaho or Jasper with OpenI plug-in, you will get the lightness, easy-to-use look-and-feel, plus features that are unique to OpenI that are not available in Jasper or Pentaho (such as exploring cube data). We may also have to create our own installers that makes their installation/deployment process easier.

So – that’s the general direction. The first step in this is to release plug-ins. We’ll start with Jasper by replacing their JasperAnalysis interface (which is basically JPivot as-is) with OpenI interface, so stay tuned for that. Pentaho already has efforts underway to replace JPivot UI (2 different approaches though – their open source version has Pentaho Analysis Tool (going through a rewrite at the moment), and proprietary version Pentaho Analyzer which is pretty decent) — so not sure, how much value-add will it be to put OpenI’s UI as a Pentaho plug-in, but there might be other features that may be better suited for an OpenI plug-in for Pentaho.

Pentaho is pretty impressive because they take a platform approach, not just a reporting server. So even though each individual component may not be as fully developed as it needs to be – architecturally I think they have a sound approach. The work we will do with Pentaho will be more along the lines of how can we make it easier to use – whether that will be via plug-ins, or embedding Pentaho in our own build, we will try that out and see what makes sense.

As always, I greatly appreciate your support of OpenI’s vision and your thoughtful comments, and look forward to ongoing feedback for our work with OpenI.

thanks,

Sandeep

Great to read about Pentaho on this site…Do I have to conclude that Pentaho is the base platform your willing to use for Openi3 (if there is still an OpenI 3 version planned) ?

I must say that – though I haven’t been trying to hard on Pentaho – I still prefer the lightness, easy-to-use and look&feel of Openi far better than Pentaho. But I’ll effectively have to switch to other alternative if OpenI doesn’t move on…

Thanks for keeping us posted on Openi’s future.

N.

It was great to see you again! Good article and yes, the partner ecosystem is really starting to take off and push way beyond just consulting. Tom is spot on, in pointing out that the line is blurring between community, partners and even customers. Some of the most knowledgable Pentaho people on the planet started in the Pentaho Community community and are using CE.

From very early on, our philosophy has been that community members are individual people and customers/partners are companies. By making that distinction, everyone is welcome in the community and pretty much start out equal. Individuals gain status in the community based on their skills and participation. If you are a community member and get hired by a partner or your company becomes a customer, it doesn’t effect your standing in the community.

I second Tom’s challenge to our partners – or more precisely, to the people who work for our partners, to become participants in the community. Not only will you be helping to grow a stronger and more diverse Pentaho ecosystem, you will find your place among the hardest working, smartest and nicest people in business intelligence.

By the way, the Europeans do seem to be way ahead of North America in the social aspects of Community. We have had three Pentaho Community Gatherings over the last three years. There is a European user group, a London User Group and more are popping up. We are trying to kick off groups in the US but are off to a slow start. So – I have a second challenge to the North American community members – lets organize some meetups!

Here are some links to pictures from the past three gatherings:

2010 Cascais, Portugal:
http://kjube.blogspot.com/2010/09/pentaho-community-gathering-live.html

2009 Barcelona Spain:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37034053@N07/sets/72157622418310534/show/

2008 Mainz Germany
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pentahocommunity/sets/

Sorry if I hijacked your blog, but this stuff gets me really excited

Doug-

There are 2 scales of meet too – the local usergroups are small and new – e.g. in london we generally get about 10-15 people and we meet once a month.

the yearly community meet is much larger and we get 50 or more people every year! You’ll have to come over this year – it’s usually around September! The yearly meet is well supported by Pentaho too with all the architects etc.

It may be true to say the community meet is more technical too – although i’m not 100% sure thats fair as not sure of the exact content at pgps.

Finally, check out this blog to see what we got up to in 2010

http://kjube.blogspot.com/2010/09/pentaho-community-gathering-live.html

There will be no EE if there is no CE. The fact that Pentaho has a system to enable “community” to monetize their work with Pentaho is what makes the contributions more likely to come into both CE and EE. But I absolutely agree with you that it is an ongoing and evolving process — though you will have to grant that meeting your fellow community face-to-face at cool venues like San Francisco is pretty fun and “nurturing” as well

I would like to point out one small caveat to your comments. The community does have a lot of people who are CE only folk and the community has some of the EE folk. Interestingly you will find some companies (Webdetails, Xpand-IT to name a couple) where you get a lot of their employees helping out in every aspect of community life, forum posts, irc channel, blogs etc. But on the flip side there are an awful lot of Pentaho partners who are exactly that, partners and you never see of hear anything from them, which to be honest is very disappointing.

The community is very open, warm and welcoming, and Doug Moran has done an absolutely fantastic job in keeping us all interested and feeling like we’re part of a team so for that I do congratulate Pentaho.

On the flip side, if you are a Pentaho partner reading this, I hope you take the time to swing by and see what we have in the community. The support is great, the conversation is better. Partners don’t just have to meet up a few times a year in different parts of the globe to call it a community, it is very much an ongoing and evolving process which takes time and nurturing.

Cheers

Tom