What's Driving Open Source?

Keynote at OSS2012, Hammamet, Tunisia.

Since the term "open source" was formalised as a term to describe the pragmatic application of software freedom, back in 1998, open source has moved from being a disruptive force on the software market to becoming the assumed heart of any new activity. As we approach 15 years of open source, what are the forces driving it today? We'll explore trends in community structure, licensing, technology and competitive forces to identify the key force vectors. Finally we'll consider how OSI is changing to match this evolution.

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Transcript

1. What's Driving Open Source? Forces Of Change In 2012 Simon Phipps http://webmink.com CC-BY-SA
2. Agenda • Software Freedom Origins & OSI • Original Drivers • Five Drivers Today – Foundations – Licensing – Software Patents – Cloud – Big Data • The Role of OSI Today
3. About Me • Technical background: electronics, programming • Worked for three computer giants (Unisys, IBM, Sun) • Watched & helped history unfold for PCs, the Web, Java, XML, Open Source • British, US-based for 15 years while living in England • Now a consultant and author • Boards: OSI, ORG, OSfA (all pro bono) • @webmink in most places • Nexus is http://webmink.com This presentation represents my own views, not those of any other entity.
4. Software Freedom Origins
6. Ethics & Pragmatics “A corporation doesn't love you or hate you. Its like a lawnmower. Put your hand in, it gets cut off. It doesn't hate you, its just a lawnmower; it cuts everything.” – B. Cantrill
7. OSI in 1998 • Pragmatic software freedom to allow the non- personal to benefit • De-emphasise ethical imperative • Open gateways to open source • Focus on practicalities – Education – Licensing • Building understanding
8. Original Drivers • Cost Savings – Trapped by “free” • Business Model Innovation – Dual licensing, then open core • Web Server Stacks
9. 1. License Choice Evolution
10. “A license describes the environment for a business relationship” Corporate Lawyer
12. “A License is the constitution for a community” Eben Moglen
13. Open Source License Trends • Move to “plus” licenses • Avoiding copyright assignment • Explicit patent language
14. License Classes Class A “Unrestricted” • Create any work • No restrictions on licensing Class B “File-based” • Files derived from commons must use license B • Files added may use any license Class C “Project Based” • All files in project must use license C if any file derived from commons C. Market-creating Market-creating Community-protecting Community-protecting Transparency-Imposing Transparency-Imposing BSD Apache MIT/X11 GPLv2 GPLv3 EUPL MPL CDDL +++
15. Open Source Licensing Trends GPL Apache MPLv2 Vanity 1998 onwards 2000-2005 License proliferation Now Emerging
16. 2. Open Source Foundations
18. Roles Of Foundations • A host for managing fiscal and other shared resources – trademarks – shared copyrights – staff • A guarantor and enabler for the governance • An infrastructure provider • A liability firewall for community participants
19. Synchronization of Self Interest
20. 3. Software Patents
22. Software Patent Realities • Software patents are real internationally – Computer-linked functional claiming makes them possible (see http://www.stanford.edu/dept/law/ipsc/Paper%20PDF/Lemley,%20Mark%20-%20Paper.pdf) – They operate by threat, not court resolution – So they cause problems everywhere • Patents arise even in open source • Patents have become anti-competitive weapons • Dealing with them is a major driver in community & license design
23. Project Patents “Parallel Filing”
24. Licenses Covenants Pools Patron
25. 4. Cloud Computing
27. Many Clouds • Internet-accessed Storage • Remote API • Remote VM with stack • Web application toolkit • Every kind of computing, plus a net • Open source is everywhere
28. No Licence Compliance • Proprietary software applies licence terms to end users (EULA) • Software asset management is a major business cost • Open source licences have no end-user limitations - Free software has no EULA • Use that does not involve distribution to others has no compliance requirements • Key, under-recognised open source value http://webmink.com/essays/compliance
29. Cloud Effects • License evolution • Formation of Foundations • Business model evolution – e.g. CloudBees • Trend towards Big Data
30. 5. Big Data • “Software Doesn't Matter” – Redmonk • Shared componentry – Twitter – Facebook – Paypal – Google • No need for “an open source business model”
31. 5 Drivers - Summary 1. Licensing Evolution ➔ Trending to community-aware 2. Foundations ➔ Keeping the peace among corporate participants 3. Software Patents ➔ Driving licensing & governance change 4. Cloud Computing ➔ Driving adoption, licensing, governance change 5. Big Data ➔ “Software doesn't matter any more”
32. OSI Needs You! Simon Phipps President, The Open Source Initiative
33. OSI Past • Founded 1998 • Steward of the Open Source Definition • Arbiter of Open Source licenses • Looking after the community's firmware...
34. OSI Future “educate educate about and advocate advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community.” (that's from opensource.org/mission)
35. EDUCATE? ADVOCATE? BUILD BRIDGES? That will need PEOPLE!
36. Affiliates Individuals Corporate Board OSI Restructuring Added 2Q 2012 Added 3Q 2012 Added 4Q 2012 Future Role
37. Join OSI Today! • Please JOIN NOW! opensource.org/join • Help us evolve – be part of the solution. • Ask your community group to join too.