Open Source Has Won The Battle; Let's Not Lose The War

Posted by Jim Jagielski on Friday, April 17. 2015 in Open Source

The below is an abstract for a talk...

Open Source Has Won The Battle; Let's Not Lose The War

20 years ago, a bunch of us got together and created Apache, and then 5 years later went ahead and created The Apache Software Foundation. The idea of Open Source back then was weird, and wild, and suspect. But due to the power and capability of the Apache Web Server, in combination with Linux, Open Source gained traction, acceptance and now ubiquity.

Looking around at the IT landscape nowadays, Open Source is found everywhere. Software is eating the world, and Open Source is the utensil of choice. Corporations once critical of Open Source, now embrace it; Open Source is now both strategic and mandatory. In many ways, one could assume that Open Source has won.

Well, maybe it has won, but it's just won the battle; the war is still there, and our success in winning the battle is threatening to cause our loss of the war. 

"It's on Github, so of course it's Open Source, right?" Wrong.

"It's got an OSI license, so nothing else is needed, right?" Wrong.

"There's nothing wrong with paid developers/contributors, right?" Well... maybe yes and maybe no.

"What is really the matter with pay-to-play Open Source foundations?"  Give me 30 minutes or so, and I'll tell you what the risks are.

There's an old saying that in Open Source, developers/contributors scratch their own itches. But what about today? Do they still? Can they still? And what is the ultimate harm if they can't. And as more and more Open Source gets funded, directly, by corporations, where does that leave the true volunteer contributor? And finally, who really has the ultimate control over a project's destiny?

This presentation will give a short history of the Open Source movement, and why the most critical forces behind its success in being an innovation engine may be at risk. 


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