“Open source as a development model promotes: a) Universal access via free license to a products design or blueprint, and b) universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone” (Gerber, Molefe, and van der Merwe 2010) In the past fifteen years, the principles ‘Open Source’ have exploded into the software industry. (Open Source Initiative 2012; Weber 2004) Open software now rivals the market share and quality of closed, commercial products. (Spinellis 2008) Following the success of open software, the same principles are being applied to other forms of product development. These include structural standards, furniture and product design, fashion, and architecture. In this essay I am going to offer a brief account on the history and development of the Open Source Movement and open source software. From this historical account, I will examine the successes and failures of the movement. By applying similar logic, I will be able to speculate how Open Source could be applied successfully to different fields, specifically in design and architecture. History. Prior to the arrival of the personal computer and the ‘digital era’, there was a fairly common exchange of information without being bound by monetary reimbursement. People shared cooking recipes, labour, construction methods. A ‘vernacular’ developed through the co-operation of many individuals working towards a common goal. (Blier 2006) Since the invention of capitalism, copyright and licensing has protected individual authors, but stifles the free exchange of information. While patent law is obviously beneficial to the author, the varying breadth of protection for intellectual property could suppress the most important part; ac... ... middle of paper ... ... Van. 1998. “Open Source Summit Trip Report.” Linux Gazette (28). Schindler, By Esther. 2009. “An Abbreviated History of ACP , One of the Oldest Open Source Applications.” IT World. Scotchmer, Suzanne. 1991. “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Cumulative Research and the Patent Law.” Journal of Economic Perspectives. doi:10.1257/jep.5.1.29. Spinellis, Diomidis. 2008. “A Tale of Four Kernels.” In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Software Engineering - ICSE ’08, 381. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. doi:10.1145/1368088.1368140. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1368088.1368140. W3Counter. 2013. “Web Browser Market Share.” doi:10.1002/ana.24076. http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php. W3Tech. 2013. “World Wide Web Technology Surveys.” http://w3techs.com/. Weber, Steven. 2004. The Success of Open Source. London: Harvard University Press.
The notion that software should be free is one that is highly critiqued within the technology industry. Free, as in the idea that users can obtain the source code for any given program, and modify and redistribute it as they like. Currently most all software produced is proprietary in nature. Corporations pay developers to create proprietary software that they then obstruct (so that no modifications can be made), and sell (to turn a profit). Richard Stallman has been fighting the idea of proprietary software, and specifically software ownership, for decades. Stallman holds the stance that software ownership is a detriment to society, and stifles innovation, education, and social cohesion.
Open source software development is taking place all over the world where part of the community develops individual modules, becoming necessary to establish standards and common definitions for open source software. These standards are established to define interaction between modules to insure interoperability of software. Software components which follow specific open standards can be replaced with other standard-compliant product, which allows the user more freedom to choose the component best suited to his needs and is not bound to a particular product, as with commercial software (Chauhan)
In this section, we consider perspectives to increase the inclusivity of software products as well as the skills required by personnel involved in the design and development of software.
---. “Sharing the Software.” Digital Chameleon: The Rise of Computer Emulation. 13 Sep. 1999. Zophar’s Domain. 25 Oct. 2000.
In week 10 of spring semester we discussed chapter 11’s Intellectual Property Law. “Property establishes a relationship of legal exclusion between an owner and other people regarding limited resources.” In this chapter, we learn that the Constitution allows Congress “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors to the exclusive Right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
...have direct access to billions of clients promptly, the developments of open source communities and attitudes, all these captivating developments are sure to transform the autocratic Soviet-like stone monuments of today into interests that people of political economy.
Proprietary software is defined as computer software in which the producer has set restrictions on use, private modification, copying, or republishing. Open source and free software are pretty much the opposite, the source codes are made available which permits the user to use, change, improve, and redistribute it in an unmodified or modified form. These definitions first led me to believe that proprietary software was more secure when compared to others because of its code not being available. Recent observations have shown though that even proprietary software developers are starting to realize that open source software development has been so successful that proprietary companies have been paying attention to incorporating open source strategies into their business model. [3] These observations have led to the development of hybrid software that has elements of both proprietary and open source software. As a matter of fact, we are alread...
In 1970s, the software was firstly subjected as intellectual property. Stallman felt if the software-based computing idea was treated as an intellectual property and controlled as proprietary, then he as a hacker[2] no longer could read the source code, find the problem, and fix the problem in the MIT lab community. It would be a major drawback to the freedom in technology from social and moral perspective. So Stallman quit the job in MIT and found Free Software Foundation[3] in 1984 as a nonprofit organization that provides various types of software such as: GCC compiler and Emacs editor. He created the General Public License (GPL)[4] as a legal document to prevent free software from being turned into proprietary. GPL is also known as copyleft[5]. To most of Stallman’s supporters and open source hackers, “non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution.”[6]. The main theme of free software is the moral freedom – the cultural and legal freedom to ac...
Copyright exists to ensure the owners of intellectual property secure a fair return on their work because existing contract law doesn’t offer enough protection. The legal rule of ‘privity of contract ‘ stipulates that a contract existing between two parties cannot be applied to a third party (Law Reform Commission, 2008), therefore the third party would be able to exploit the works wi...
Technological advances have made it easier for analysts as well as policy makers to access all the information they need. Open source information now accounts for 90 percent of the informati...
What this means is that the program that is used here will feature a source code that is open for all people to adjust. It also allows for people to make all of the adjustments that they make to the program open to the public provided that it is distributed with the same license terms as what was used in the original program. It must not restrict any software or other functions in a computer and it must not be given out with a cost attached to it (OSI 1).
The study of trust and control in a virtual organization has had researchers emphasizing on the importance of trust as a necessary condition for ensuring the success of these mentioned organizations (2001, p.277). Although we have been led to believe that this trust is the backbone of the virtual work environment, the author Michael Gallivan has explored the Open Source Software (OSS) movement and has made a case for the contrary. He states that “various control mechanisms can ensure the effective performance of autonomous agents who participate in virtual organizations”. He goes on to say that effective performance can be produced through control, efficiency, predictability, and calculability of processes can occur in the absence
The reason for this rapid adoption is Linux’s unique ability to provide powerful functionality, security, compatibility, customization at a more cost-effective price than proprietary vendors. In its inception, there were many perceived concerns to utilizing Linux in a corporate infrastructure.
The idea of calling on the public for input is barely new, of course, and the open-source movement has shown us that it can be done with incredibly large masses of individuals. The difference, however, is that today's technology enables large numbers of non-technical people to complete complex and creative tasks, at significantly lowered expenses.