16 February 2008
Open Source is 10 years old
On February 9, 1998 Bruce Perens published his defining document of the open source movement, the Open Source Definition.
On the same day, together with Eric Raymond, Perens announced plans for the Open Source Initiative the two were planning to launch. Now, on the tenth anniversary of defining the term open source, Perens this week published his State of Open Source, in which he looks back on the decade.
One of the successes of open source and free software, says Perens is in the realm of innovation. We have actually changed the way that innovation happens. Innovation has gone public. Many companies, institutions, and individuals share innovation on a daily basis, entirely in the open, through Free Software development communities.
The products they produce are the leaders in their field. Public innovation eliminates the high transaction costs of lawyers, lawsuits and licensing. It focuses on building a fertile community across the market for idea creation and utilisation rather than dividing the market for the direct monetisation of ideas as property. This is the economically most efficient approach for most companies.”
From: http://www.tectonic.co.za/
