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April 15, 2004

Open Source's Role in Transforming Society

This morning's MySQL 2004 keynote is by Brian Behlendorf, founder of collab.net. Has been travelling and speaking quite a bit recently, visiting a wide range of organizations and individuals about the use of open source software etc.

According to the press, the open source movement started in 1998. Actuality is that it starts back in the origins of the internet.

Business isn't like it used to be, the spend-to-much-for-unmeasureable-roi and winner-takes-all mentality was getting old. With the crash of the dot-com people were more willing to consider alternatives. Software has continued to be more central to the operations of a company. Software has shifted from being a product to being a service.

There is also a political front. Met with Chinese representation two years back who indicated they love free software and that they'd been using Microsoft software for free for years. Joining the WTO means China must be better about piracy. In Vietnam it would take the average worker 18 months of salary to afford Windows and Office XP. Open source is a two-way street, organizations that use it should make efforts to contribute.

The right to fork is one of the most important parts of the open source license.

OSS is international, has been since the origins. Linus's first Linux post in 1991 got feedback from 10 countries in within one week.

Summary, open source software might be considered an uplift strategy, a set of patterns, techniques, or tools to solve Big Problems in a bottom-up way. The 90s was an era of dehumanization, engineers seen as cogs in a wheel. The open source movement sees the engineer as a creative person.

Examples of international movement:
- Lanka Software Foundation - started by IBM employee
- Rural wireless/VIOP in India
- E-government issues in EU
- China-Korea-Japan joint Linux distribution
- Thialand's laptop initiative - trying to get laptops for $600 - asked Microsoft for OS pricing, said $300 - got Linux distribution for free - went back to MS and showed them and MS said they'd reduce price to $10 - Thialand offers both and the Linux laptops outsell MS 2 to 1

Closer to home examples
- vendors surrounding MySQL
- the US governments core.gov
- groklaw
- deanspace, indyvoter.org
- MIT's user innovate lab - found patterns in development skateboards, windsurfing, batteries

Open source represents a templage to new ways to solving problems.

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