«...That statement packages several questionable assumptions:
1. That the only motive for developing free software is ideological.
2. That innovation in software requires a lot of funding.
3. That the only way to fund software research is through proprietary software.
4. That innovation is more important than freedom.
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The Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement is revolutionizing the IT industry.
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With 1.4 billion people connected, the Internet is the greatest collaborative network that mankind has experienced. One of the consequences of the growth of this network is a shift in the way knowledge is being created and distributed.
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Collaboration on software development is essential, but
how do you include your partners, customers and even
competitors as part of an extended team? The Eclipse
Foundation's Ian Skerrett shares tips on using open source
software to establish an innovative network for IT.
Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., told the House Science Committee Wednesday that America's "position as the global leader in innovation is at risk."
Read more »Michael Gibbons, director of science and technology policy research at Britain's Sussex University, said universities must abandon their centuries-old model of linear knowledge transfer and instead open their doors and minds to knowledge exchange with competitors and students...He cited as a model the development of the open-source Linux computer operating system, freely available and able to be modified, used and redistributed by anyone.
Read more »I had the chance to interview Thomas Hansen, who recently announced the Gaia Programming Contest (€10,000 reward). Here are his enlightening answers!
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AS the Senate prepares to tinker with the nation’s patent laws this spring, it’s worth recalling the law of unintended consequences.
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In a recent article, renowned virtual reality guru Jaron Lanier criticizes the community-driven software development process of the open-source movement, asserting that the model isn't conducive to radical innovation. Lanier believes that the scientific community should shun the open approach and not follow in the footsteps of Linux.
Read more »Lately, some articles appeared which stated the open-source way of development didn't bring us any innovation. Jaron Lanier even goes further by saying closed source is the better approach to innovation. However, these people miss a lot of important points and facts about innovation, and therefore the conclusions they make are false. Having read a lot about innovation myself lately, I will try to show that the open-source way of doing things leads to more innovation, and more important, I will give some real life examples showing the closed-source inventions aren't that innovative at all, and pointing to some open-source inventions the other writers missed.
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"Like Dracula, the old myth that free software can't innovate keeps returning. Its latest incarnation is in the form of a column by Jaron Lanier in the December issue of Discover Magazine. (The column isn't online yet, but Lanier has disparaged community-based creativity many times, in particular when talking about Wikipedia). But this accusation is one that's overdue for a stake through the heart. Those who have experienced free software projects firsthand know that they depend on innovation and genrally foster it. And although this isn't a highly innovative era for the computer industry as a whole, free software is an exception -- and likely to become more of one as it continues to come into its own.
Read more »history tells me that if patents were to disappear tomorrow, the process of innovation wouldn't skip a beat.
Read more »Microsoft has these 235 patents that they say GNU/Linux is infringing on. Patents they never identify. Is it because they plan to dribble them out one by one to patent trolls who will then grind down free software companies in an endless series of lawsuits?
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When you ask google for innovations in Linux what you get is rather disappointing - on the first page there’s somebody’s rather uninformed attack on Linux as lacking innovation, some PR bumbf, and five separate references to a joint IBM/Red Hat press release entitled “IBM, Red Hat Announce New Development Innovations in Linux Kernels”.
Read more »Bruce has criticized Novell in the past (and will today). The conference is being held at Novell, but the security folks haven’t thrown him out yet.
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