I just had the pleasure of a 3 hour long chat with Martin von Haller Groenbaek who’s a partner at Copenhagen-based Bender von Haller Dragsted - a leading Scandinavian IT-law boutique. Martin specializes in legal issues related to emerging technology and business models based on openness. Need advice on e.g. issues like Creative Commons? Give the man a call.

It certainly was a great chance for me to dig a little deeper into the whole aspect of open business models as well as open source technology - something that seems to play an increasingly important role in many of my companies and in some of the projects currently in the pipeline.

Why is openness important to an ordinary small tech start-up? What exactly does “openness” mean?

I still don’t have all the answers clearly defined and I guess that’s partly why I’m talking to Martin, reading Chesbrough’s Open Business Models, booked a meeting up with the successful Danish open source entrepreneur Niels Hartvig, following SaaS vendor sugarCRM so closely, asking silly questions on Linkedin, flicking through the pages of Wikinomics, and going to listen to Jimmy Wales in Chicago a few weeks from now.

Hopefully it all helps me understand the concept of openness a lot better… Because right now I’m a little lost.

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