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→Talks on Open Source
What is open source? Is it merely a net result of technical elites that materializes renegade technologies? Is it a philosophy that causes emotional and logical movements to emerge? These are the initial thoughts and reactions I had in regards to the meaning of open source before attending the 2007 Free Software and Open Source Symposium. The FSOSS is a conference consisting of innovators and pioneers of the open source movement and methodologies dedicated to educating and advocating the current and historical definition of open source and what that means for the future. Some of the most respected organizations in the industries, including Microsoft, Mozilla, IBM, and Novell participated by giving lectures, providing financial support and workshops.
==Talks on Open Source==
The first keynote lecture, Applying Open Source Concepts to Non-software Industries and Open Source Economics was given by Bob Young, co-founder of Red Hat, CEO and Founder of Lulu.com. The synopsis of Young's lecture is comparing the software industry as a spectrum where on “…one end [the industry] being a highly proprietary model where you trust your supplier to build the product or service you need to use without any input or understanding from you, and the other end being the extremely open, transparent and collaboratively built services from Linux to Wikipedia” (FSOSS, 2007).
Young wanted to express that the software development model of open source is not a new idea that has gained movement and formed a trend, but rather this model existed in everyday of our lives. He then states that only a tiny fraction of society is based on the closed model. He did not go into exact details but gave simple anecdotes to support his statement. People are relatively safe while walking during night as others are relatively concerned for the well being of each other. He credits this to society’s values of collaboration and cooperation which are principles of open source. He also states that the National Football League (NFL), a multi-billion dollar sports industry, was initiated on an open source model, where the pioneers of NFL, burrowed borrowed the model of how Canadians played football so that they could resolve issues in their business objectives (to prevent their athletes from being injured).
The second keynote lecture, Open Source Economics: Stakeholder Perspectives was given by Dirk Riechle, Lead, Open-source Research Group at SAP Labs in Palo Alto, California. His lecture was about analyzing open source through an economical perspective: “The system integrator perspective, the start-up firm perspective, and the individual software developer perspective” (FSOSS, 2007).
