July 16th, 2007
Does open source make business decisions political?
Of all the relationships changed by open source, perhaps the most nagging is that between business and politics.
There’s another taste of that in today’s news, word the BBC is looking to make an open source version of its iPlayer.
The BBC had made a business decision to work with Microsoft in taking its video content online, but groups like the Open Source Consortium have been protesting, saying Microsoft is pushing updated, proprietary standards.
Friday’s announcement is far from the end of it. The BBC just says it’s looking for open source solutions. Meanwhile they’re going ahead with Microsoft.
There are many, similar stories. Massachusetts’ struggle over file formats was politically charged. Much of the appetite for Linux and open source in the developing world is driven by politics as well.
If Microsoft were going up against other proprietary vendors in these cases, politics would not likely be an issue. One result is that Microsoft also ends up making political arguments in pursuit of its business objectives. And political activists become agitated on its side as well as that of open source, which leads to the open source=communism argument.
Is there a path out of this, back into the pure light of business decisions made for business reasons, with (perhaps) some palms greased in the case of government contracts? Yes, those were the good old days.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 07/16/07
