How the principles behind open source are changing our world

Two tech giants meet for their annual golf competition. They each tee off, and corporate pride is on the line as they head down the fairway to see which one has the advantage for their next shots. Ten open source developers then step up to the tee. They each take their shot, then race down to see which of the balls is best positioned for the drive down to the green - because that spot is where they will ALL be playing their next shot from.

A collaborative approach to problem-solving is fundamental to how we innovate. While we may enjoy celebrating the lone geniuses in our history, their initial sparks of inspiration have always been adapted and improved upon to meet our need to develop agriculture, smelt iron, or build supercomputers.

The digital-first world we live in today has been driven by the free exchange of ideas, collaboration, and meritocracy. And these principles have been so effective precisely because they mirror the way we have solved problems for millennia, but it wasn’t until the dawn of the internet that these principles were given a new name - open source. 

Safety in numbers / A virtuous cycle
 

Unlike in-house teams working on lock-boxes of proprietary software, open source software can be inspected, modified, and enhanced by anyone in the developer community. New features and fixes are shared with the community for testing, peer-review, and comment. Some ideas return to the drawing board, the best ideas rise to the top and are incorporated into the source code. That modified source code is then returned to the community, and the cycle continues. 

When Linux was released in 1991 its license stated that anyone could have access to the code - in its entirety - but any enhancements had to be freely shared. The idea that developers can build on the work of others, and then - crucially - release their innovations back into the community lies at the core of open source. 

With so many developers working on the project, innovations and fixes came that much faster. Since 2005, over 15,600 developers have contributed to the Linux kernel. The original version of Linux contained less than 10,000 lines of code. Today, it’s approaching 28 million.

Even formerly ‘closed’ proprietary software is being shared with the open source community. When the open source software company Red Hat acquired automation software Ansible in 2015 for $150m, they immediately open sourced the code to harness the speed of innovation and new ideas that the community could bring to the project. That’s a $150m bet on the effectiveness of open collaboration. (That commitment to openness will see Red Hat collaborate with Business Standard to open up its paywall this November 5th so everyone has open access to the site and the information it contains.)

Open everything

As the benefits of the open source approach have been demonstrated in technology (Linux now runs over 95% of the world’s servers), the principles underpinning this collaborative approach are being adopted in science, government, the arts, and education. 

The Open Education Consortium (OEC) is a global community of educators collaborating on free access to educational resources. The OEC community works together to ensure educational standards are maintained, and lesson plans, syllabi, worksheets and other tools and practices are created and shared for reuse, modification, and translation - especially useful in those regions underserved by the education industry, and where schools and teachers may not have the funds to license copyright-protected materials.

We often think of scientific research as open, with researchers publishing their findings for peer review, but proprietary data usually prevents the reproduction of that research. Today, new licenses and open formats are being established so that the data - rather than just the result - are freely accessible and scientific knowledge is shared.

Interestingly, while we may think of the workings of government as being somewhat opaque, many countries have been ahead of the open source curve when it comes to offering access to government information. 70 years ago the US government passed ‘sunshine’ legislation, which led to the now familiar Freedom of Information laws. Today, over 70 countries around the world have adopted similar laws offering access to government proceedings.

In the corporate world, while many companies still prefer top-down control from the corner office, others can see the benefit of a more open approach to idea generation, even if it means ceding control of the content to their customers. GoPro creates hashtag campaigns inviting users to post their brand experiences. Nike’s Run Club app encourages users to post their daily run on social media. Starbucks asked its baristas for autumn drink recipes - tapping into their own in-house community for innovations that eventually ended up on their menu, and in a pre-Christmas marketing campaign. 

It’s certainly true that when our open source golfers are trying to decide which ball is best placed for the next shot, there’s going to be a fair amount of debate. But once a question is asked, the answer won’t be far behind, and pretty soon, the two tech giants will find themselves being asked to stop holding up the open source developers’ game, and get a move on.

Open source has become the driving force behind development in tech, but open source methodologies can now be found far beyond your smartphone. As these principles are adopted in other sectors, hopefully everyone will get to play from where the best idea landed.