The Clothesline Paradox
Tim O'Reilly, the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, talked about what he called the "clothesline paradox". The clothesline paradox points at the fact that if you dry your clothes in an electric dryer, the energy used is measured and accounted for, but if you hang them on the clothesline to be dried by the sun, the energy saved disappears from our accounting!
He related this to open source software and crowd sourced content. The enormous amounts of value created by open source software developers and people using that software to contribute interesting content on sites like Wikipedia, Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ goes completely unaccounted for. We have done a great job of creating value, but we haven't yet told the story. When we do think about how open source software is doing economically, we think of the few companies that have monetized open source directly, like Red Hat, MySQL or WordPress as the size of the open source economy. What most don't realize is that it basically powers everything on the internet and many of the devices used to access it.
Talking about the value of open source in terms of licenses sold is like talking about the value of solar energy in terms of sales of solar panels without taking into account that it actually grows our food, provides warmth, is the source of many other energy sources used on the planet including oil and generally just supports all life on the planet.
DevOps on the Fly
Mark Shuttleworth, the CEO of Canonical (the company that produces Ubuntu) delivered a keynote address where he demonstrated their new juju DevOps suite. Juju is designed to deploy and maintain cloud systems. It dynamically creates VMs, installs and configures software on those VMs, and even sets up the relationships between the VMs so they automatically start talking to each other. It's magical. While some have a hard enough time showing off pre-installed operating systems without unexpected "blues", Mark on the other hand created, configured and deployed a private cloud on his laptop in front of 3000+ attendees. That takes something. Five percent of all new computers that ship next year will ship with Ubuntu.
Simple Inventions that Change the World
I also attended a talk by Ward Cunningham the inventor of the Wiki. Ward invented the Wiki in 1994 and made it freely available to the world shortly thereafter. By 2001 Wikipedia was created based on the Ward's Wiki concept and it now contains 22 million articles. Ward also is one of the founders of agile software development and co-author of the agile manifesto. One of my favourite quotes by Ward is "Do the simplest thing that could possibly work". It's hard to exaggerate the influence Ward has had on technology.
Ward demonstrated one of his current projects, a collaborative writing tool called the smallest federated wiki. Although it's very much a work-in-progress it was simply amazing in many ways, so much so that it's hard for me to describe in a few words other than to say it's sort of like a mashup between wikis, GitHub and Diaspora. I don't know of a working demo of the software at this point but will keep my eyes open for it and in the meantime I will be checking out the source to see if I can put up an instance.
OSCON is my favourite conference of the year. Not only is it highly professional, inspiring and visionary, it's only a few hours away from us here in BC. I highly recommend to developers and anyone else interested in where IT is going to attend this conference next year. If you would like to learn more about OSCON or open source software and how it can be used in your organization, please feel free to get in touch. I hope to see you there next year!
9 comments:
I love the way you had written this material. This is awesome. I do wish you plan to create more of these types of content. Thank you for this exciting content!
inventory software
Immigration consulting firm located in Alberta, a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant and member of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (RCIC #R422223.We have been providing immigration services and international recruitment services for over 17 years.
We are specialized in international recruitment of skilled workers, mainly in trades and in immigration to Canada. Home Immigration Services Canada
Such an informative blog. This blog is specially related to the IT industry. I read this blog and was really impressed. Keep sharing more informative blogs. Now it's time to avail jupiter florida airport for more information.
Thanks for sharing this post. I got information on this site. Keep sharing.
Abogado Transito Clarke VA
Concerns about the legal framework preventing the use of open data are justified. However, recent actions by the Canadian government indicate a positive shift towards investing in creating a secure environment and leveraging data for economic growth. These initiatives are likely to allay doubts and encourage businesses to explore content writing services Pakistan with greater confidence and optimism.
OSCON was an American annual convention for the discussion of free and open-source software. Thanks for sharing this article about OSCON. Now its time to avail Sign and Blind Services in Eastbourne for more information.
if you dry clothes in an electric dryer, the energy used is measured and accounted for, But if you hang the clothesline to be dry by the sun the energy saved disappears from our accounting. Thank you for sharing useful information in the article. Now it's time to avail same day computer repair in Essex, MD for more information.
Looking for a reliable Custom Writing Service to meet your academic or professional needs? Look no further. Our custom writing service offers comprehensive assistance tailored to your specific requirements. Whether you need an essay, research paper, dissertation, or any other type of academic assignment, our team of skilled writers is here to help. We understand the importance of quality and originality, which is why we guarantee plagiarism-free content crafted from scratch. Our writers are experts in various fields, ensuring that your work is handled by someone with the relevant expertise and knowledge. Additionally, we prioritize timely delivery, so you can rest assured that your deadline will be met. With our dedication to excellence and customer satisfaction, you can trust our custom writing service to deliver exceptional results every time.
Post a Comment