The document discusses the evolution of open source and open standards over time. It traces the history from early pioneers like Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson who developed Unix (though it was not initially open source), to Richard Stallman who founded the Free Software Foundation and developed the GNU operating system and General Public License (GPL). It then discusses how Linux was developed openly by volunteers like Linus Torvalds, and how open source and open standards helped fuel the growth of the internet. More recently, trends in software as a service, open data, APIs, and social networking are raising new challenges around decentralization, identity, authentication, and who controls different parts of the technology stack. Open source will continue to play an
22. “Until the Linux development,
everyone believed that any software
as complex as an operating system
had to be developed in a carefully
coordinated way by a relatively
small, tightly-knit group of people.”
- Eric Raymond
22
45. Lessons Learned
• communities can be trusted to build things
of value
• openness is not just about license, its about
the data too
• every attempt to be closed will be met by
forces to be open
• open tends to win
45