A 'must' for any interested in open source who would understand its ongoing evolution and potential

Interesting read on different facets of open source movement | Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution | Chris DiBona, Mark Stone, ...

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	• Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution Chris DiBona, Mark Stone, ... O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2005 - 488 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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How OSS is changing the world as we know it...

Open Source Software (OSS) has radically redefined the landscape of the software industry and the Information Technology field. As much a mindset as a methodology, there are many elements of OSS that draw some of the deepest thinkers of our field. You can find some of those essays in the book Open Sources 2.0 - The Continuing Evolution, edited by Chris DiBona, Danese Cooper, and Mark Stone. There's a little something here for everyone...

Contents:
Part 1 - Open Source - Competition and Evolution: The Mozilla Project - Past and Future; Open Source and Proprietary Software Development; A Tale of Two Standards; Open Source and Security; Dual Licensing; Open Source and the Commoditization of Software; Open Source and the Commodity Urge - Disruptive Models for a Disruptive Development Process; Under the Hood - Open Source and Open Standards Business Models in Context; Open Source and the Small Entrepreneur; Why Open Source Needs Copyright Policies; Libre Software in Europe; OSS in India; When China Dances with OSS; How Much Freedom Do You Want?
Part 2 - Beyond Open Source - Collaboration and Community: Making a New World; The Open Source Paradigm Shift; Extending Open Source Principles Beyond Software Development; Open Source Biology; Everything Is Known; The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia - A Memoir; Open Beyond Software; Patterns of Governance in Open Source; Communicating Many to Many
Part 3 - Appendixes: The Open Source Definition; Referenced Open Source Licenses; Columns from Slashdot; Index

As with all compilations from various writers and authors, it's not possible to have all the articles flow with the same voice and pace. And really, they shouldn't. You're looking to get a wide array of opinions and insights, not a blended mind dump from a single writer. Conversely, you'll find that some of the articles resonate with you, and others have you moving into scan mode to get to the next one. If you keep that in mind as you're working through the book, you'll get a lot more out of it.

For me, there were two areas that were enjoyable and valuable. The story of how Wikipedia went through growing pains and worked through rules and culture was interesting. Likewise, the story of Slashdot and how it got to what it is today is insightful. I still don't care for the site, but you can't argue it's effect in the technology world. The most thought-provoking essays for me revolved around the commoditization of software. Coupled with a different book I recently finished, I realize that certain software vendors are in a very precarious position, and they are following the same path that has led others to destruction as they attempt to hold on to what doesn't work any more. Those essays would have been worth the cost of the book alone to me...

If you're part of the OSS movement, or if you're trying to understand how it will affect your business, this is a good book to read and ponder...

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A 'must' for any interested in open source who would understand its ongoing evolution and potential

Chris DiBona, Danese Cooper and Mark Stone edit Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution, a collection of essays from today's tech leaders exploring open source's impact on the software industry. Open source is network- enabled distributed collaboration that holds the potential of changing not only online business itself, but the nature of collaboration. Articles address the future of open source in essays that cover not just the developing technology but the participation of international communities. A 'must' for any interested in open source who would understand its ongoing evolution and potential.

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Interesting read on different facets of open source movement

This collection of essays on the open source movement could be called a second edition to the book "Open Sources: Voices from the Revolution" that was published in 1999. That book spent much space trying to argue that the open source movement was legitimate and here to stay. That argument has long since been settled, so this book takes up the current and future trends of the open source movement. The essays can be read in any order, and depending on your expertise, some may not be of any real interest to you- for example the open source biology essay might not be valuable to someone interested in network security. However, all essays are written to be accessible to a wide audience in spite of that fact. For example, I have no background in biology whatsoever, but I still found the essay on open source biology an understandable and interesting read. I particularly enjoyed the essay on the open source paradigm shift by Tim O'Reilly. His premise is that free and open source developers are in much the same position today that IBM was in 1981 when it changed the rules of the computer industry, but failed to understand the consequences of the change. This allowed others, Microsoft in particular, to reap the benefits. O'Reilly concludes that existing proprietary software vendors are no better off, playing by the old rules while the new rules are reshaping the industry around them. Another favorite of mine was on the commoditization of software in which it is explained that this process has been driven by standards, in particular by the rise of communications-oriented systems such as the Internet, which depend on shared protocols, and define the interfaces and datatypes shared between cooperating components instead of those components' internals. There are also two fascinating essays on the open source movement in China and India, neither of which was really a factor when the first edition of this book was published six years ago. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in where technology might be headed in the future, not just those who are employed in the tech industry. I notice that nothing about the contents of the book is currently shown by Amazon, so I show the table of contents here for the purpose of completeness:
The list of essays are:
1. The Mozilla Project: Past and Future by Mitchell Baker
2. Open Source and Proprietary Software Development by Chris DiBona
3. A Tale of Two Standards by Jeremy Allison
4. Open Source and Security by Ben Laurie
5. Dual Licensing by Michael Olson
6. Open Source and the Commoditization of Software by Ian Murdock
7. Open Source and the Commodity Urge: Disruptive Models for a Disruptive Development Process by Matthew N. Asay
8. Under the Hood: Open Source and Open Standards Business Models in Context by Stephen R. Walli
9. Open Source and the Small Entrepreneur by Russ Nelson
10. Why Open Source Needs Copyright Politics by Wendy Seltzer
11. Libre Software in Europe by Jesus M. Gonzalez-BarahonaGregorio Robles
12. OSS in India by Alolita Sharma and Robert Adkins
13. When China Dances with OSS by Boon-Lock Yeo, Louisa Liu, and Sunil Saxena
14. How Much Freedom Do You Want? by Bruno Souza
15. Making a New World by Doc Searls
16. The Open Source Paradigm Shift by Tim O'Reilly
17. Extending Open Source Principles Beyond Software Development
by Pamela Jones
18. Open Source Biology by Andrew Hessel
19. Everything Is Known by Eugene Kim
20. The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir by Larry Sanger
21. Open Beyond Software by Sonali K. Shah
22. Patterns of Governance in Open Source by Steven Weber
23. Communicating Many to Many by Jeff Bates and Mark Stone
Appendixes :
A. The Open Source Definition
B. Referenced Open Source Licenses
C. Columns from Slashdot

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"Open Sources 2.0" is a collection of insightful and thought-provoking essays from today's technology leaders that continues painting the evolutionary picture that developed in the 1999 book "Open Sources: Voices from the Revolution" .

These essays explore open source's impact on the software industry and reveal how open source concepts are infiltrating other areas of commerce and society. The essays appeal to a broad audience: the software developer will find thoughtful reflections on practices and methodology from leading open source developers like Jeremy Allison and Ben Laurie, while the business executive will find analyses of business strategies from the likes of Sleepycat co-founder and CEO Michael Olson and Open Source Business Conference founder Matt Asay.

From China, Europe, India, and Brazil we get essays that describe the developing world's efforts to join the technology forefront and use open source to take control of its high tech destiny. For anyone with a strong interest in technology trends, these essays are a must-read.

The enduring significance of open source goes well beyond high technology, however. At the heart of the new paradigm is network-enabled distributed collaboration: the growing impact of this model on all forms of online collaboration is fundamentally challenging our modern notion of community.

What does the future hold? Veteran open source commentators Tim O'Reilly and Doc Searls offer their perspectives, as do leading open source scholars Steven Weber and Sonali Shah. Andrew Hessel traces the migration of open source ideas from computer technology to biotechnology, and Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger and Slashdotco-founder Jeff Bates provide frontline views of functioning, flourishing online collaborative communities.

The power of collaboration, enabled by the internet and open source software, is changing the world in ways we can only begin to imagine."Open Sources 2.0" further develops the evolutionary picture that emerged in the original "Open Sources" and expounds on the transformative open source philosophy.

"This is a wonderful collection of thoughts and examples by

great minds from the free software movement, and is a must have for

anyone who follows free software development and project histories."

--Robin Monks, Free Software Magazine

"The list of contributors include"

Alolita Sharma

Andrew Hessel

Ben Laurie

Boon-Lock Yeo

Bruno Souza

Chris DiBona

Danese Cooper