Collaboration in an electronic age
Kyle Cheney
Issue date: 10/4/05 Section: News
This is the first in a four-part series about trends in modern-day communication and their implications for the future.
Generosity cannot be measured in dollars and cents. Good will has no numerical value. Yet, on the wild, infinitely growing catacombs of the internet, a new era of digital philanthropy has emerged. And in this new technological age, the internet has given birth to the most-public service, a service that can be evaluated using 0s and 1s.
The phenomenon is known as open-sourcing: the computer nerd's way to contribute to the web, Windows and the world.
Many of the most fundamental programs on which we rely today are a product of open-sourcing: SilkyMail and Horde, the fundamental email tools of the Boston University community, for example.
And the key to this emerging public service? Collaboration. Here's how it works.
Step 1: A programmer develops a base code for a new program. Step 2: The programmer makes his code available to the entire world, free and without copyright. Step 3: The world responds, editing and reworking the code to develop a seamless, user-friendly program that can perform vital functions for the average computer user.
Open-sourcing "makes available for free many tools, from software to encyclopedias, that millions of people around the world would have had to buy in order to use," writes New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his new book, The World is Flat.
A number of local experts agree.
Mark Withington, principal and founder of PLM Research, a Plymouth-based company that helps midsize businesses take advantage of the potential of the internet, says open-sourcing is the future of innovation, particularly for businesses.
"The whole open-source movement is a concept," he said. "As individuals, as businesses, we make available the source code to the public. Microsoft -- the big kid on the block -- will guard [the company's code] with their life. But there is a huge movement underfoot where programmers and businesses are developing code and giving that code to the community."
Generosity cannot be measured in dollars and cents. Good will has no numerical value. Yet, on the wild, infinitely growing catacombs of the internet, a new era of digital philanthropy has emerged. And in this new technological age, the internet has given birth to the most-public service, a service that can be evaluated using 0s and 1s.
The phenomenon is known as open-sourcing: the computer nerd's way to contribute to the web, Windows and the world.
Many of the most fundamental programs on which we rely today are a product of open-sourcing: SilkyMail and Horde, the fundamental email tools of the Boston University community, for example.
And the key to this emerging public service? Collaboration. Here's how it works.
Step 1: A programmer develops a base code for a new program. Step 2: The programmer makes his code available to the entire world, free and without copyright. Step 3: The world responds, editing and reworking the code to develop a seamless, user-friendly program that can perform vital functions for the average computer user.
Open-sourcing "makes available for free many tools, from software to encyclopedias, that millions of people around the world would have had to buy in order to use," writes New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his new book, The World is Flat.
A number of local experts agree.
Mark Withington, principal and founder of PLM Research, a Plymouth-based company that helps midsize businesses take advantage of the potential of the internet, says open-sourcing is the future of innovation, particularly for businesses.
"The whole open-source movement is a concept," he said. "As individuals, as businesses, we make available the source code to the public. Microsoft -- the big kid on the block -- will guard [the company's code] with their life. But there is a huge movement underfoot where programmers and businesses are developing code and giving that code to the community."
