McNealy Urges Governments and Corporations in Asia to Move to Open Source

Scott's globe trotting continued as he traveled to Tokyo, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to promote Sun's open source strategy with government leaders and CEOs in Japan and India; all in the name of economic progress and eliminating the digital divide.

Starting in Tokyo, Scott met with top customers and partners, touting the four reasons to open source: low barriers to entry (the price point), low ongoing costs of operations, open is more secure and low barriers to exit. He shared Sun's latest news, the launch of JavaFX and even managed to sneak in a Sumo wrestling match.

The Chairman then jumped over to India, the world's second most populous nation; one that is experiencing break neck growth and hoping to be the country that comes up with the next YouTube.

Scott's India adventure began in Delhi with a series of government meetings. He outlined the advantages of open standards and open source technologies, providing recommendations on how India can implement such standards in a country with 1.1 billion people, 24 languages and more than 1600 dialects, all covering 1.25 million square miles of land.

Day Two in India took Scott to Mumbai (or Bombay, depending on who you talk to, and your age), where he kicked off Sun India's 2007 Technovate Summit. Scott urged the audience to ask for a barrier to exit clause in each and every contract and RFP they issue. He closed out his session with a photo op with Indian actress Perizaad Zorabian and promised not to "pull any Richard Gere stuff" with her. For more on Scott's keynote, click here.

McNealy spent part of the afternoon at CNBC TV 18 studios where as a guest editor, he led a roundtable discussion with more than 20 reporters and editors on open source, trends in technology, growth in India, leadership and his 25 years at Sun. Footage of the roundtable is coming soon. Stay tuned.

The final day of the trip was spent in Bangalore, the heart of India's IT research and development. Addressing Sun India's Developer Conference, Scott encouraged the audience to join and build large communities and to take advantage of Sun's grant to India: a completely open sourced technology stack to not only deliver thousands of applications but to help eliminate the digital divide both within India and around the world. For more on Scott's keynote, click here

After a series of customer meetings, Scott addressed members of NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) before getting on a plane for a 24 hour journey back home (through Frankfurt, no less — the Chairman circumnavigated the globe on this trip, albeit against the jet stream). For a closer look at Scott's day in Bangalore, click here.

For questions, further information or a copy of Scott's presentations in Japan and India, send an email to Scott.