The document discusses the evolution of open source and open standards over time. It traces the history from early pioneers like Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson who developed Unix (though it was not initially open source), to Richard Stallman who founded the Free Software Foundation and developed the GNU operating system and General Public License (GPL). It then discusses how Linux was developed openly by volunteers like Linus Torvalds, and how open source and open standards helped fuel the growth of the internet. More recently, trends in software as a service, open data, APIs, and social networking are raising new challenges around decentralization, identity, authentication, and who controls different parts of the technology stack. Open source will continue to play an

1. The Evolution of
“Open”
Byrne Reese, Open Source Guy
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2. Byrne Reese
Product Manager, Blogger, Open Source
Guy, Hacker, Open Web Evangelist,
Entrepreneur, Father, Teacher.
http://www.majordojo.com
http://byrne.vox.com
http://twitter.com/byrnereese
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3. 3

4. A History of Open
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5. Dennis Richie
Ken Thompson
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6. 6

7. Unix
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8. Not open source.
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9. Richard Stallman, a.k.a. RMS
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10. “Free beer”
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11. Free Speech
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12. commercialization
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13. GNU
“GNU is Not Unix”
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14. Free Software Foundation
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15. GPL
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16. The genesis of
“Open Source”
as we know it today
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17. Believe it or not...
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18. Not open enough.
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19. Best form of advocacy: doing.
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20. Linus Torvalds
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21. Linux
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22. “Until the Linux development,
everyone believed that any software
as complex as an operating system
had to be developed in a carefully
coordinated way by a relatively
small, tightly-knit group of people.”
- Eric Raymond
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23. volunteer driven
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24. community driven
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25. 25

26. Convergence of open source
and open standards that made
the Internet flourish.
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27. Open Source
Cheap Software
Start Ups
Services
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28. Software as a Service
negated our assumptions about
how software would be distributed.
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29. Siloed Data
PHOTO: silos
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30. Petting a cat the wrong way.
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31. “information
outlives software,
transcends software
and is more valuable
than software”
- Tim O’Reilly
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32. relevance of the license decreased
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33. importance of open data increased
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34. interconnectedness
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35. Enter:
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36. 36

37. open source and blogging
informed the next generation of
online applications:
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38. Web 2.0
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39. APIs
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40. Mashups
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41. Cool.
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42. Cool, but not useful.
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43. Limited by standards
(or lack thereof)
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44. </history lesson>
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45. Lessons Learned
• communities can be trusted to build things
of value
• openness is not just about license, its about
the data too
• every attempt to be closed will be met by
forces to be open
• open tends to win
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46. Today
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47. The same pressures still exist.
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48. Everyone fighting to be the
center of gravity
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49. 49

50. 50

51. growing need for decentralization
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52. Action Streams
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53. 53

54. Everyone wants to own something
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55. 55

56. FriendFeed Plugin
On FriendFeed:
On Your Blog:
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57. Facebook Connect
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58. 58

59. The convergence of
blogging & social networking
is surfacing a
new set of problems
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60. Identity
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61. Authentication
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62. ?
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63. 63

64. Leading the charge:
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65. In Summary
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66. • Blogging 2.0?
• There is still a lot to be done to solve these
problems.
• Open Source is about helping and
contributing.
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67. fin.
Questions?
byrne@sixapart.com
http://www.majordojo.com/
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