Over the period of time, organizations have evolved and changed the way they played the game. Once upon a time, organizations were masters in what they produced and most of the time played their cards well. With the growth of Internet, organizations have not only capitalized the advantages, but also working day and night to grow along with their competition.
One fine day, Sony and BMG, the leading music company woke up just to see how MP3 (a particular compression technology for music tracks) shook the roots of their empires. They knew all about the technology, but were over confident that their homes were the safest places and over-looked how the new technology was building its strength under their own homes. When they realized, they cried foul, but it was too late.
IBM was struggling with its server software, which was not a huge success in the then market. Intelligently, it was following the success of Linux and Apache, the open source Web server software. IBM did not give up on any of its hopes and understood the rules of the “Open Source” game. It quickly acted and came into an agreement with Apache and soon, IBM’s server hardware was rolling out with Apache running on Linux. IBM has dedicated teams that Contribute to Linux and Apache. An intelligent move that only bettered IBM’s market place rather than hampering it.
When the concept of Open Source initially came out, many organizations did not pay serious attention. How can people around the world write software when it is not controlled or checked by anyone? This is an Interesting question, which cannot be answered in a line or two.
Over the series of my posts, we will discuss and share ideas on how Open Source will be the major contributor to tomorrow’s world.
Let me begin by listing few web organizations, which are built around interesting and innovative ideas.
Taking IT Global – Taking IT Global is a not-for-profit organization bringing people together to share and work on projects that are beneficial to the world. The idea revolves around people in the community listing their ideas and projects and community members come together to support and work on the projects.
SpikeSource – You have been using open source software. The key element is that the code changes every minute and new functionality keeps on getting added. How can you manage these changes? Spike Source is an open-source source code integrator. This integrator runs periodically and runs through various open source code, test and integrate the same to your base code. Sounds interesting? Try it out?
43Things – A Social Networking site with a difference. List your professional / personal goals, search for people with similar aspirations and work together. Also, you can keep updating your goals with the progress and get encouragement from your peer members.
InnoCentive – The most interesting site I came across. This is a web based innovation center. Organizations / people list their problem for which they are looking for solution and if you are a master in the subject, feel free to solve the problem. There are many chances you are paid if you provide the most innovative solution and also, you are a celeb 🙂
NineSigma, InnovationXChange Network, Eureka Medical, YourEncore and Innovation Relay Centers are quite similar to InnoCentive.
I really like the TakingITGlobal and Innocentive. Over the period of time, I will deep dive into OpenSource in various fields concentrating on HealthCare and Social Innovations