Open Source helped Rome defeat Carthage
Carthage dominated the entire Mediterranean in the 5th century BC with its incredible navy that kept trading routes open to commerce. Its ship building technology was amazing. They provided DIY kits of ships with building directions on the parts themselves so anyone with average skill could build a ship in just days.
An expanding and conquering young Rome was not too happy with Carthage on its doorstep in Corsica, Sardinia and most alarmingly in Sicily which is just kilometers away from the Roman mainland. Rome was smart knowing it cannot defeat Carthage without a navy. So it started building its own and then began the Punic wars in which it suffered heavy casualties in the beginning. What changed everything was the capture of a disoriented Carthaginian war ship with its open source instructions labeled on its parts.
Long story short, the Romans abandoned their own designs and copied the ship part by part and followed the same instructions to build over 200 ships in just 45 days. Everything else went downhill after that for Carthage who slowly over 40 years lost everything. Eventually Rome whipped Carthage completely off the map in one last genocidal campaign.
Carthage must be destroyed!
Intrinsic/Intangible asset specialist IAM300. Entrepreneur. Director. Business Leader. International speaker. I partner with companies to discover and unlock their competitive edge to create and/or build shareholder ROI.
5 年A great post,?Alex Karasulu.? For me, this post highlights not only an early example of how open source content can be used to the detriment of the creator but also an example of how Carthage did not adequately manage and mitigate risk around its trade secrets. While this example dates all the way back to the 5th Century, many companies still haven't learned this lesson and are effectively giving away their secret sauce by not adequately protecting their trade secrets. I strongly believe that if someone can get something for free, then they're not going to pay for it. Therefore if you want to protect your empire/company, I'd suggest you look at whether you're adequately protecting your trade secrets. Otherwise, you might find your company is under attack and your competitive edge consigned to nothing by a note in a history book... #IntangibleAssets #OpenSource #CompetitiveEdge #TradeSecret #Risk ?