Open source and innovation...
by
Charlie Bess
For some reason, this time of year draws out questions about predictions for 2006. ;-) So I'll pull together some of mine for the near future, but those will need to wait for next week.
I was asked a question by a reporter that got me thinking about a blog entry Tom Hill put in this blog a few months back. The question was: What role will open source code and the maturity of enterprise-level open source software play in accelerating change in the business IT landscape?
My initial response was:
Open source allows for anyone who is willing to do the work, to get deep knowledge of a particular solution or problem. They can understand it and then tweak it to their needs, addressing unique business problems. This degree of flexibility and understanding will enable organizations to move the ball forward and create business value, differentiating themselves.
If the best available people are skilled in open source software, they are “the best people” and will have the greatest ideas for the organization. In any case, the best people will bring innovation and that is where the future is. By definition, the people most familiar with open source activities need to be self-starters, who initiate change.
In Tom's entry, he mentioned the issue that modern software licensing only allows for shallow understanding of the products, since source code is no longer available. With open source solutions, that issue is no longer true and organizations can be as innovate as they want (as long as they are willing to do the work to support it).
