August 14th, 2009
Behind the failure of OpenSourceWorld
The apparent failure of OpenSourceWorld to draw a crowd follows the chasing of Tim O’Reilly’s OSCON back to its Portland base earlier this summer.
It’s a shock to the system but there is an easy explanation.
Open source was never about big trade shows. It is less about making money than saving money.
Despite Peter Fenton’s having made $1.6 billion for early open source investors, the money being made by open source vendors is a pittance next to that earned in previous turns of the technology wheel. This is not the dot-boom and it’s not the PC boom.
This is not a bad thing, unless you are a vendor or advocate for one.
The money in open source is going to the users, and is thus invisible to most in the business press. When a law firm does not have to put $1 million into an upgrade that’s money that can go into the law. When a school district can install Linux terminals rather than a bank of PCs that’s money that can go into education.
When everyone is saving like this the result can seem invisible. But it would be a mistake to then assume there is no result.
Open source gives software buyers some of the benefits hardware buyers have long gotten from Moore’s Law. Computing costs are pressed out and more computing can get done.
This is important because the need for scientific advance, better engineering, and real efficiency has never been more critical. An aging work force on a dying planet is staring into an abyss and looking for a way out. Solutions must come from our minds and the processing power of our systems. Open source makes more processing available to more people at lower cost than before.
Hardware and software are tools. They are means to an end. They are not the end itself. The fortunes made in technology over the last generation have blinded us to this reality.
On the empty show floor of the Moscone Center, that reality is what we need to remember. Open source has, and will continue to do a lot of good in the world. But trade shows and badges? We don’t need no steenkin’ trade shows and badges.
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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| 08/14/09
