It seems as if Open Source is becoming fashionable, particularly when it comes to maps. In the last 24 hours or so, we’ve had:
- AOL launching an open source map project
- Adobe announcing an open-source collaboration with SourceForge
- Vodafone makes almost all of Wayfinder open source (after paying $30 million for it)
And that’s in addition to the open source newspapers and watches I recently wrote about.
Although I believe open source is a very useful and viable way to work, I do worry about companies leaping into it without some careful planning and research. It almost feels a bit like turning ‘build it and they will come’ into ‘open source it and they will come’.
If you want a great insight into some of the complexity of open source, then Free For All by Peter Wayner is well worth reading (especially as he’s made it avaiable for free in various formats). The fact that it’s almost a decade old means it’s easier to focus on the issues than the technology involved.
Or if you want modern proof, take a look at the current disagreement between WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and the creator of the Thesis design and framework, Chris Pearson, which may end up in legal action.
Just as Open Source is ‘free as in free speech and not as in free beer’, it also takes as much effort as anything worthwhile – it just does it in different ways…