Principles of Open Source

1363 Words3 Pages

“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.

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