The Coin Phase that Doesn’t Seem to Cut it…

When one looks at contemporary documentaries, and start diving deeping into the concerns of industry users of Open Source technology, one starts to quicky realise that its not about “Open Source”. The name was coined as part of the growth period of the FOSS movement, but it does not reflect the thinking in its entirety.

In fact, Open Source is about more than “free source” and sharing. The new wave of OSS shifts really look at new commercially viable, industry grade Open Source business model, support structures, skills development and open standards. Finding a term to embody these ideas could be a tough call, yet may have some merit. Open Source is already stigmatized by the financial industry, branded as a paradigm with an immature process with “some good technologies” by several players.

Will OSS just fade into the background? Is it a “wait and see” scenario? It will depend on your viewpoint and the industry that you are playing in. The outlook for SMEs seem different to that of large corporates, and the industries also differ substantially in their opinion.

Bringing the real facts to the table will be the most important part of OSS. Objective education is needed, not “false benefit” advertising. The core problem resides with the understanding of OSS - what it means and where its going. The problem therein lies the fact that OS is a fragmented movement with one philosophy, but many directions. This lack of central vision presents one of the biggest challenges to OS adoption.

Can this scatter brain, social development movement be harnessed to present some good solutions, or are we all just suffering from the afterschock of the OS hype?

Things to ponder.