[Gllug] FT's Special Report on Open Source

[M.Blackmore]

:)ti dessim sah enoyna fi( troper siht denoitnem egninahcdlrow.www

FT's Special Report on Open Source
Pulling Back the Curtain – Information and Knowledge Resources
Nicole-Anne Boyer
The Financial Times "Digital Business" has a 12 page special report on a
favourite theme of ours: open source and specifically how it is
impacting innovation, collaboration, and product development within the
corporate sector. (Sept 21, 2005 -- short term access only so read now.)
With the FT riding high as the world's best daily for the business
intelligentsia, take heed large organization types: if you ever needed a
piece to put in front your boss's nose and add credibility to some of
your open source ideas, this should help. Highlights include:

  * Online Revolution by Richard Waters: This covers familiar ground --
    namely the growing importance of user generated content and
    communities of hobby tribes to help co-create value -- but is worth
    reading for the fresh examples. For instance, we learn that
    kitesurfers "have taken to using sophisticated computer modelling
    software to design the most efficient kites. They then share their
    ideas over the internet, refining their concepts before sending them
    to a manufacturer." It's the magic of the community process that
    they love, not just the technology, and the fact that they are more
    in control of the process. "These are the basic ingredients of a new
    approach to innovation." 

        What does this mean for businesses that rely on more traditional
        “closed” approaches to innovation? The software industry
        provides some of the first lessons. One is that open innovation,
        when used successfully, forces established companies to think
        much harder about where they channel their research and
        development investments: there’s no point spending heavily in
        areas where a community approach has produced an acceptable
        alternative. Deciding where to draw the line between “open” and
        “closed” development, however, is not easy. 

  * Many of the authors cite and highly recommend the new book
    Democratizing Innovation by MIT Sloan School's Eric von Hippell.
Give us your book reviews, if you have them. Continue reading "FT's
Special Report on Open Source"
Posted at 03:06 AM on September 22, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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