Here to stay - open source software
It is interesting to see that the open source movement is playing a prominent role in current innovations on the web.
In case you were wondering, open source is a philosophy about how software should be written, whereby the source code is available to the users. Additional meaning is added to the term by The Open Source Definition, written by Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond, which states that one should not only be able to get the source code, but also have the right to use it. If other people don’t have the right to use it, then the license is considered to be a shared source license.
Anyone who wants to know more about the open source movement should take a look at Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which was first presented as a talk in 1997, and is now available in book form, along with other essays. It is generally regarded as a manifesto for the open source movement.
Another prominent figure in the open source movement is Richard Stallman, who in 1983, launched the GNU Project, which created the free operating system Linux.
There are currently many examples of open source software that are improving the web no end. Mozilla’s Firefox web browser is now one of the most popular browsers available, and is presenting a serious challenge to Internet Explorer. Open source is currently being embraced by the ubiquitous online social networking scene, where a set of common API’s for building social applications across the web are being established, such as Facebook’s open platform, and Google OpenSocial.
The open identity system OpenID 2.0 was launched in December, and an open ad network may be developed as an alternative to Google Adsense.
Overall, it looks as though the open source movement is here to stay, and has a lot to offer.