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The New Age of InfoWare: Open Source and the Web 

Metaphors describe what society does and shapes where its culture goes.  Battling Microsoft Windows is the old metaphor.  Currently, the Web dominates the shape of computing.  A new metaphor has surfaced and is gaining momentum.  It starts with a free operating system that is licensed to be given away for nothing.  Its source code is the work of many people who collaborate, share changes to code, and then fully disclosed it to anyone who can use it.  Such a scenario presents an entirely new way of thinking about software development and computing.  In fact, it is a computing revolution.

The technical side of Usenet was the mother of Linux and the free software movement.  Usenet was the medium that made it possible for the technology community to find and recognize each other.  Usenet and the spirit of collaboration got Linux underway and keep it alive.  Linux could not prosper without the Web.  The Web is an open source phenomenon in the public domain that owes its existence and vitality to innovation born from sharing information.  Netscape’s decision to make its browser source code public was fundamental to the Web’s growth as hypertext markup language (HTML) is an open source standard.  Now attention needs to be focused on what the future of computing will look like and what role open source will play.

“Infoware” and Mindshare

 End users are most concerned with applications.  Traditionally this was software that created things such as spreadsheets, word processing, and databases.  The Web is a different kind of application because it is a window into a new application layer.  Users can not tell the difference between the application and its resulting content when functions such as E-mailing, online purchasing, and Web browsing become the “infoware” applications.  “Infoware” is information that combines text and graphics with a very interactive interface.  Where once PC hardware was proprietary and has since become open platform, software is likewise becoming a commodity as source code loses its proprietary stranglehold.

The danger with “infoware” comes from its leverage of open source resources by those who do not consider or see themselves as part of the open source community.  These beneficiaries of open source innovation and technology need to be persuaded that sharing is the cultural “norm” and expectation of the open source community.  Giving back to the community is basic to continued improvements in open source technology and innovation.  Without it, proprietary “business-as-usual” becomes the accepted, predominate practice on the Web which is the antithesis of its origins.  The open source community needs to realize that it is fighting for the Web’s mindshare on this matter.

Written by Judy Kong, TechDivas Business Analyst, in a report on the Linux World Conference, Copyright 2000, Diva Networks, All rights reserved