Issue #1 — Me And Open Source
Edd Wilder-James
Tech Leader | Data, AI/ML, Cloud, Open Source | Board Member | Advisor | Coach
Hi friends!
I'm looking forward to sharing with you as I embark on a project to capture some of my hard-won insights from my tech career to date. For this first week, I've been focusing on writing about open source software. I got my start with creating open source back in 1999, and haven't stopped since: my trajectory has taken me from PHP XML-RPC, being a Debian maintainer and a GNOME contributor, through to chairing OSCON and leading open source strategy for Google.
I've met some of the most interesting and generous people as a result: nothing ever felt better to me than being able to host the OSCON keynotes and feel a tremendous togetherness as thousands of open source people shared one space.
Posted this week
In my work at Google and Sysdig, I've seen first hand how open source can have a powerful business benefit: from creating new markets, to boosting product adoption. However, for every success story I've worked on, there are many companies and leaders who are confused about how to use open source well.
The thing about using open source as a business tactic is that you need to be clear on what you want. When you choose one outcome, and design for it, you accept trade-offs, some of which can be very expensive. If you're creating an open source platform to ensure a market remains open, you will end up paying twice—once for the open source, once for your product.
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Today's economy runs on open source, yet our approach hasn't caught up to this reality. The ideas of community and individual contribution are not enough to sustain our current reality. Here's what's changed, and what is coming next for open source sustainability.
Let me know what you think
I'm hungry for feedback! Let me know what you think of this week's content, and anything else you'd like to hear from me. I've been silent a long while and am excited to keep writing and share my experiences.
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Until next week!
cheers,
-- Edd
Managing Director at IPTC
5 个月Nice work! I just quickly read all these articles and you have the beginnings of some really interesting insights here. Do you know Henry Chesbrough at Berkeley? He literally wrote the book on open innovation. I wonder what the two of you working together would come up with, taking his ideas further for a new generation...