I probably need another 23 hours to process the acquisition news today. But I'm never one to reach reasoned conclusions. I prefer the kind to which one jumps. I justify this by calling it "going with my gut." So I may eat my words later, but here goes.

I'm cautiously optimistic about both the Blackbaud/Target and Convio/GetActive mergers. From an advocacy perspective, we've worked hard here at NTEN to endorse and educate the sector about Open APIs, the idea being that it's your dang data, and we think you should be able to take it with you! Participants from Blackbaud, Convio and GetActive were gracious enough to participate in last fall's Great Open API Debate on the topic.

Now, some of you may see these mergers as even less reason for these companies to take openness seriously. But I actually believe that these acquisitions happened, in some part because of the drive to openness. Because clients are getting crankier about not being able to share data between applications. Because nimble giants like Salesforce have proven that there is a business model that works for open software. And mostly, because everything that is new and good on the web demands openness. Small, nimble and open are the hallmarks of the new, successful software.

I also think that the physical act of integrating two disparate systems, especially in the case of Convio and GetActive, will cause them to create the kinds tools that will be used to share data internally at first, but can then be spit polished and prettified for use by the general consumer.

Granted - this is a lot of assuming (and you know what they say about that). But there's a real chance here that openness will win the day, even as the playing field gets smaller.