Open source? I don’t believe you are giving away your source code, isn’t that your intellectual property? Isn’t the source code your bread and butter? Isn’t that your ace card? What kind of business will you run with open source?
While these questions are valid in their own place, the discussion of open source is on a different level. Software has moved from the programmer’s backyard to the business’s courtyard. Software today plays a bigger role in the businesses, and even in our daily lives. For this to keep working efficiently, participation of the business and people has to increase in the decisions taken regarding the software. These are not technical decisions, but practical decisions, which will eventually affect the technical decisions. Open Source is just a way of enabling this!
Software creators have to open their mind to the software user - the people, the businesses. They should be able to gain control over a software once they decide to use it. Only then will they be confident enough to use it to the fullest and contribute back. Otherwise the only knowledge they gain is from the creator, who can manipulate it as and when required. Open source is a way of breaking this barrier, making it transparent and inviting users to contribute. This has helped the software creators to identify the right requirements and normalize the product against a community.
The spirit of open source is to provide more to the user. This has also benefitted the developers as there is increased collaboration and participation. Linux, Mozilla, Apache, Wordpress are only some of the successful open source projects which reflect the advantages of open source development. You will find many more such in open source repositories like Sourceforge or Freshmeat.
There are also some misconceptions regarding open source that create doubts for businesses. The popular ones are:
- Open source means free and free means free of cost
- There is no/minimal support for open source products
- Because the source code is open open source products are insecure
- Open source is for geeks
Open source does not mean free of cost, free means freedom, freedom of choice that is available from the control. Opening up the source to the users has built up a strong user community around such products, not only improving the support system for it, but also enhancing the development cycle creating some excellent products as mentioned earlier.
Having said this open source also poses certain business and copyright problems. While I am not an expert in the business model for open source, here is some information I have found regarding this:
I am sure in future more such ideas will come out which will prove that open source is not against business. It is for users, and for business.
Technorati tags: open+source, business, software, linux, mozilla, apache, wordpress, source+code
Copyright Abhijit Nadgouda
February 13th, 2006 at 11:39 am
[...] We have seen earlier how open source enables open mind and an open dialogue, here I discuss how open source domain can be leveraged to bootstrap a business and provide infrastructure for it. [...]
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:20 am
[...] Isn’t this the effect of the open source movement! Well, the user need not be literally a developer, but someone who is heeded to when the feature set or behaviour of the software is being designed. More and more services are being released as beta and opened up so that the users can provide feedback and voice their considerations. This is great, a huge field of testers is available, which can sometimes result into good brainstorming sessions. [...]
May 29th, 2006 at 9:08 am
[...] Jeff talks about challenges faced by developers when using open source. One of them is the ability to cope up with Community based support structure. I would actually call this taking contributions from the users. Users can contribute in a variety of ways - giving feedback, providing support or suggesting usage-driven enhancements and features. Experienced users are the best candidates for providing support for usage. In fact, some can come up with innovative uses that the creators had not envisoned! This can lighten the burden of support. The biggest problem of a developer talking to a user is the mismatch in the language that is used. A user talks to another user in the same language and can easily identify with the problem. The easiest way of handling this is accepting it with an open mind. [...]
September 22nd, 2006 at 8:31 am
[...] Isn’t this the effect of the open source movement! Well, the user need not be literally a developer, but someone who is heeded to when the feature set or behaviour of the software is being designed. More and more services are being released as beta and opened up so that the users can provide feedback and voice their considerations. This is great, a huge field of testers is available, which can sometimes result into good brainstorming sessions. [...]
November 15th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
[...] Usually a lot of people agree to the benefits of the open source theory, but don’t believe in it because they don’t find the bottom-line benefits. The most dominant reason being lack of appropriate know-how for which the open source software is blamed. For product owners, I think open sourcing your product is keeping an open mind towards your users and their contributions or feedback. If you still wonder whether open source can benefit your organisation or not, read the article. If required re-read, you might be able to start seeing its benefits, slowly but surely. [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
[...] Jeff talks about challenges faced by developers when using open source. One of them is the ability to cope up with Community based support structure. I would actually call this taking contributions from the users. Users can contribute in a variety of ways - giving feedback, providing support or suggesting usage-driven enhancements and features. Experienced users are the best candidates for providing support for usage. In fact, some can come up with innovative uses that the creators had not envisoned! This can lighten the burden of support. The biggest problem of a developer talking to a user is the mismatch in the language that is used. A user talks to another user in the same language and can easily identify with the problem. The easiest way of handling this is accepting it with an open mind. [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 pm
[...] eZ publish, Mozilla Firefox are all open source products. They are so because they comply with the Open source guidelines. The most important being providing source along with the product. The next one - [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 pm
[...] have written earlier how open source enables open mind and an open dialogue, here I discuss how open source domain can be leveraged to bootstrap a business and provide [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:44 pm
[...] Open source paradigm is increasingly doing a service rather than just providing software. In my opinion this will really influence future software development. [...]