The Future of Open Source? | When Open Source gets monetized

Linux, Wikipedia and Firefox all have one thing in common: their source code is open, meaning everyone can work on the code, but recently major tech companies have bought several big open source projects. How will that impact the open source space? Will it become less open? Our topic today on shift [ Music ], open source software is unique in that, unless anyone access and develop its source code, the open source movement emerged as the antithesis to commercial software businesses. click for more info tend to keep their proprietary code secret companies like Microsoft, sell expensive user licenses of its patented code. The company's founder Bill Gates even referred to open source projects as a new form of communism. Now Microsoft has shelled out 6.5 billion euros for github a key open-source software development platform and IBM recently bought open source software developer, Red Hat for a staggering 30 billion euros, making it IBM's biggest takeover ever, which impact will this have on the open source community? Our tech idealists, giving in to market pressures, we asked Mickey boon from the Technical University of Berlin who's been involved in the open source community for 20 years. The commercialization of open source software that we've been seeing also with the acquisitions of Red Hat and github hasn't really impacted the daily business because you still have free access to the software. Not everyone in the open-source community is as optimistic as mirko. Boom. Open source was designed to be collaborative and decentralized, but its future looks uncertain. Forbes recently ran a story. Titled is open source broken after a talk given by github chief operating officer, Erica Brescia, she's, worried by companies using open source within their own products. I do think that the way that people are consuming and building services around open source has changed. There are tons of companies that are flourishing with building businesses around open source software, and there have been some open source companies who have come out and said that was a really their intention when they were building out the business. It'S interesting that tech giants like IBM are now also jumping on the open-source bandwagon according to boom. They are after more than profit the names also. On the one hand, the companies use open source software because they hope this will drive innovation. It allows to collaborate and use the community's collective brainpower for finding software solutions. On the other hand, it's about being part of a community producing something available to everyone. So it's a combination of making more profit being more innovative and doing something good when you can offer school this tool, and not only companies have recognized the potential of open source. International organizations like UNICEF and the United Nations are also looking to work with the open source community, a move which could mean that less financially able players will no longer be dependent on private providers. What'S particularly striking is that the United Nations have recognized that the availability of free software can help reach the sustainable development goals. They'Re currently running technology, innovation labs in various countries that are developing open source software that will come available to all for free. We can only hope, big tech companies, don't just want to tap the collective know-how of coders, but also plan to give back to the coding community right now. Open source movement is growing, independent developers, tech giants and multilateral organizations all use open source, meaning developers from all over the globe can collaborate on a single coding project doesn't is therefore often it's collaboration in this community is kind spirited and open-minded, and it's truly cross-cultural you'll See people working on code together from countries that are political enemies. It'S really great a case in point. The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba recently published core codes of its a link. Algorithm platform on github software developers and data analysts from around the world can now build on this code to develop their own projects. Alibaba uses the a link platform to help with statistical analysis, machine learning and with generating personalized product recommendations. One hurdle may be understanding the descriptions as for now, these are mainly in Chinese. Much of China's cyberspace remains cut off behind a Great Firewall. So the fact that Chinese tech giant Alibaba made the algorithms behind its AI platform public is a hugely surprising step. One open-source developers probably dreamed about in the pioneering beginnings when the computer age was dawning, software was free to use for all then came the first companies that sold software for money and slowly programs became proprietary secrets. The open source movement was a response to this development. Idealistic coders wanted to reintroduce freely accessible code and, to this day, open source follows key principles: it's free for everyone to study and use access, develop and distribute, and everyone should contribute something among the best-known open source projects. Today are the Firefox browser, the operating system, Linux and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, but open-source software is not free of license terms. It also comes with licenses. These specify the conditions under which the software can be used and redistributed, and while the software itself isn't usually charged for optimization and support, are in recent years, more and more African open-source developers have stepped onto the scene. Nineteen-Year-Old samson gaudi from nigeria is widely recognized as one of the top open-source coders. Two years ago. Nineteen year old, Sampson Gaudi from Nigeria co-founded open source community Africa. Africa currently has one of the fastest growing IT sectors, and the platform helps connect young African developers. The majority of the people in Africa doing software engineering are on the near edge of 30. It'S it's another platform rifle for them to freely communicate to different people from different African countries. You know I probably personally have been working with people in you know. In South Africa, in Rwanda in Kenya, in Zambia, aside, open-source is really difficult for me to do it, because countenance is huge over 1 billion people kind of varied universes like music right everybody, just vibe with it, samson gotti was introduced to open-source at the age of Nine, when the One Laptop Per child initiative gave him a computer running the Linux operating system today he's a coder and board member of sugar labs, which develops elearning tools for children. His career trajectory has served as inspiration for the first ever open-source Festival in Lagos. Nigeria festival age to advocate for the next billion craters. You know there are a lot of awesome people really people doing really really massive job. You know, but for some reason it's so difficult getting visa. You know that was one of one of the the challenges you know me and my folks in the open-source community was thinking about how we need to solve that problem in order to bring the experience. Is you know from Europe? You know Asia and you know North America down to Africa. According to the latest github report, the number of African open-source projects has increased by 40 percent in the last year, more than anywhere else in the world [ Music ]. One of these projects is run by a Nigerian team using drones to map parts of Lagos. Well, then, one billion people worldwide live in places that don't have an official address which makes it hard or even impossible to locate them. Sometimes these people cannot claim state support or get medical treatment and, in case of an emergency authorities, have no idea how many people are affected, let alone where they are macoco in Lagos. This is one of the largest shanty towns in Africa. Around two-thirds of all Nigerians live in this type of settlement. Nobody knows exactly how many people are in macoco latest estimates said the population was around 90,000, but code for Africa's lead. Technologists David LeMond thinks it's home to many more. His organization is working on creating the first ever. Map of macoco macoco exists as a essentially a black hole on Google Maps. It'S three dots, but in reality it's actually an entire community. There are waterways that you can be able to see code for Africa, teamed up with a World Bank to put macoco on the map. A team of women learn to pilot drones and now use them to map the neighborhood analyzing areas of three square kilometers. Each. By doing so, they are getting a highly detailed picture of the area. The data is then evaluated by data analysts and fed into the free OpenStreetMap program. A team on the ground provides additional info about the various buildings. Would we be able to have enough funds to do this collection of data if it was an open source? I don't think so, because it's beyond the funds there's an entire community and ecosystem that allows us to be able to repurpose this kind of information. This know-how can be passed on and used to improve the neighborhood. It can help, for example, get a much better idea of how many people live in macoco, which is key for creating a local infrastructure. [ Music ], open source code has great potential. That'S why github coders want to make sure it is preserved and accessible for future generations. Open-Source developers plan to archive the codes in a different coal mine in Pittsburgh and the Arctic for at least 1,000 years. Well, judging from that promo clip, they seem confident to be. Writing history and, according to me, a kaboom, it's this confidence which drives them. Do you guys think the midfield most of those involved are motivated by two things? They wonder do something they enjoy, that they find interesting and they like feeling that everything they produce helps make the world a better place. It'S this combination that drives many of those I know in this field can indium by sea sure ptomaine. Do you use Wikipedia or Firefox both are open-source projects, I do use them and if you ask me, open-source is an incredible accomplishment in the world's 500 fastest supercomputers run on a free operating system, namely Linux. What does the future look like now that tech giants are buying important, open source projects? What do you think, let us know on YouTube or Facebook, bye, bye and see you soon: [, Music, ],