strategic computing and communications technology mba 290c, eecs 201, is 224, e298a open source...
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StrategicComputing and Communications
Technology
MBA 290C, EECS 201, IS 224, E298A
Open source software
David Messerschmitt
Strategic technology Fall 032
Copyright notice
©Copyright David G. Messerschmitt, 2000. This material may be used, copied, and distributed freely for educational purposes as long as this copyright notice remains attached. It cannot be used for any commercial purpose without the written permission of the author.
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Outline
• What is open source and what is its rationale?
• Where does (and doesn’t) open source make sense?
• Open source business models
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Discussion items
• Are new forms of intellectual property arising?
• Can software ever start out as open source?
• Is open source applicable to applications?
• Are there unrecognized business models?
• Are there unrecognized licensing models?
• Where do “suits” add value?
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What is open source?
• Licensing arrangement
• Community development process
• Populist movement
• Pragmatic response to the make-buy dilemma
• Service-based business model
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Software license
• Licensor: owner of trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret
• Licensee: granted right to use
Terms and conditions
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Terms and conditions
• Payments• The where and when of use• Modifications• Releases to third parties or commercialization• Risks and liabilities• Representations and warranties• Support, maintenance, upgrades
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Generic source code licenses
• Public: free and unconditional• University (e.g. BSD): free, but credit the
licensor• Copyleft (e.g. GPL): free, but no
proprietary products can be based on it• Community (e.g. Java): control and
royalties• Examination: look but don’t touch
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General public license
• An original work may be copyrighted provided that distribution terms are added giving everyone the right to use, modify and redistribute the program's code or any program derived from it, so long as the distribution terms are unchanged
• Viral effect for linked binaries
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Community development processes
• Enabled by the Internet
• Frequent distributions (for testing) and releases (for using) of source code
• Anybody can examine and test the totality of source, propose source upgrades/fixes
• To avoid forking, governance to choose what is included in distributions
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Community development is proven to work well when the software is…
• Widely adopted
• Undifferentiated
• Has many programmers among its users (only programmers?)
• Technically sophisticated
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Open source addresses only part of the development process
• Addresses evolution (maintenance and upgrade)• Other necessary elements:
– Original contribution• requirements, architecture, working code
• licensing terms and conditions as basis of governance
– Respected and willing leader
– Support, documentation, training and certification
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Open source as populism
• Programmers can create defect-free code and have satisfying careers without– Formal requirements– Schedules– Resource limitations– Patents and litigation– Suits– Speculators and monopolists
• “Open” and “free” are virtuous• Manifestation of free speech
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The make-buy dilemma
• Software as infrastructure– More valuable when homogeneous
– Buy is always preferable to make
• Software as integral to organization and process: source of differentiation– Take charge: make it myself
• expense, risk
– The monolith: license common off-the-shelf (COTS)• externally imposed process, undifferentiated, lock-in
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Open source is intermediate
Make Buy
Share resources with similar organizationsCentralize support and trainingModify to local needs
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Question
• Do you believe that end users can “modify source to match their needs”? What are some problems with this?
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Possible answers
• May violate license
• Creates forking, undercutting shared resources
• Every release creates a new integration challenge
• Bottom line: may work if modifications are minimal and mostly extensions
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Other (maybe better?) make-buy workarounds
• Open standardization processes: establish reference architecture and interfaces– Open source, commercial, locally developed
modules can be mixed and matched
• Component software– Create a market at smaller granularity than the
monolithic all-encompassing solution
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ActivityResults
to produceLevel 1:Just do it.
ActivityResults
to produce
Level 2:Think before you act,and think after you act, just to make sure you did it right.
Planning
Evaluation
input to
to improve
Where do Standards Come From? Software Project Management and
Standards Development
Source: Fred Beshears
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Standards Activity Results
to produce
Planning
Evaluation
input to
to improve
input to
input to
Level 3: Establish In-house Process Standards
Source: Fred Beshears
Use your lessons learned to create
in-house process standards.
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Standards Activity Results
to produce
Planning
Evaluation
input to
to improve
input to
input to Product Standards
Set product standards for the results you need and expect, and then create opportunities to get those results
Level 4: Establish In-house Product Standards
Source: Fred Beshears
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Standards Activity Results
to produce
Planning
Evaluation
input to
to improve
input to
input to Product Standards
to improve
Level 5: Adopt Standards from Outside Organizations.
Organizations that create software development methodologies (e.g. Extreme Programming) and/or software product standards.
Source: Fred Beshears
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Organization1
Organization2
OrganizationN
Domain SpecificStandard Setting Organization
Level 6: Establish Standards Setting GroupFor Multiple Organizations in a Domain
Source: Fred Beshears
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Some weaknesses of open source
• Limitations of “technical heroism” as a motivator– Not all (many?) challenges are technical
• Non-programmer users are outsiders– Programmer lack of empathy– Open source lack of usability
• Incomplete as a process– User needs and requirements
• Abandon benefits of intellectual property to recover investments
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Beggars roaming the commons
• Civilization allowed specializationCommons bartering money
• Programmer’s motivation– Contribute to the community (of programmers)
– Technical heroism
• Non-programmer users– Non-contributors to the commons; little influence
– Commons provides little attention to needs or usability
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Is software strongly differentiated?
• If so, some software may be much more appropriate for open source
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Integrative services
Processing Storage Connectivity
Common representations
Generic services
Segmented application services
Diversity of applications
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Diversity of applications
Diversity of processing, storage, and
connectivity technologies
Common services andrepresentations
and structures forinformation
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Single homogeneous solution adds valueDifficult to differentiateWinner-take-allHighly technical
Emphasis on user needs and usabilityDifferentiated needsDevelopment increasingly automated
Divorced from user needs and usabilityOpportunities to differentiateHighly technical
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Product business model
Series ofversions
/ testing
Productmarketing
Documentation
Distribution
Support
DeploymentIntegration
TrainingCertification
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Product revenue
Supplierproduct revenue
Supplier cost of business
Third party service revenue
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Product cost
Upgrades priceor
Ongoing subscription
Time and materialsor
Negotiated price
Bundled
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Service business model
Communitysource
/ testing
Evolution
Documentation
Distribution
Support
DeploymentIntegration
TrainingCertification
Originalcontribution
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Service revenueCreator
Community collectiveresponsibility
Third party service revenue
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Service cost
Voluntaryin-kind
contribution
Upgrade feesTime and materials
Subscription
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Question
• Can you think of other industries that are built on services surrounding a “free” product?
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Answer
• Financial services
• Tax preparation
• Airport transportation
• …
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Building a business around open source
• Many models are possible based on different value added and bundling– Distribution (Walnut Creek CD-ROM,
SourceForge)– Integration and distribution of binaries (Red
Hat Linux)– Porting and hardware integration (Linux on
IBM platforms)– Bundling with commercial software (Red Hat)
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Building a business around open source (con’t)
– Professional version with derivative enhancements while owning and maintaining open source (Sendmail)
– Bundling in an information appliance with proprietary extensions (Tivo)
– Perpetuate unprofitable commercial software while reducing costs (Netscape-Mozilla)
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Building a business around open source (con’t)
– Marginalize a monopoly with a community based alternative (Linux, Java)
– Create an open-source base and build revenue business around it (Java)
– Create an application while sharing development resources (???)
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Generic business models
(Source: Fred Hecker, “Setting up Shop”)• Support seller – provide missing elements as
services (Red Hat)• Loss leader – sell commercial enhancements
(Sendmail)• Widget frosting – embed in hardware/systems
(Tivo)• Accessorize – books, documentation, etc.
(O’Reilly)
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Generic business models
• Service enabler – downloadable to support an online service (Real Networks)
• Brand licensing – charge to use trademark (Java)• Sell it, free it – start out as commercial, but
offload costs as it loses differentiation (Mozilla)• Franchising – encourage geographic or vertical
markets with branding fees (Java)
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Issues to address
• Code sharing with other commercial products (contamination)
• Licensed third-party code (contamination)
• Code sanitization (comments, etc)
• Export controls (cryptographic)
• Supporting infrastructure (tools, repositories, etc)
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A few things to remember
• There is free software, but not zero-cost software• Open source eliminates one source of
differentiation for either supplier or customer• Open source obviates exclusion based on
intellectual property• Open source is incomplete as a process• Open source is viral
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Discussion items
• Are new forms of intellectual property arising?
• Can software ever start out as open source?
• Is open source applicable to applications?
• Are there unrecognized business models?
• Are there unrecognized licensing models?
• Where do “suits” add value?