WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Distracted by the good? [PhotoTravel]

As I mentioned earlier, all the family came with me to Copenhagen this week, where I was speaking at Dansk IT's annual conference - my topic was open source software. We found Copenhagen a beautiful, light and gracious city, with a population of largely gentle and charming people. I should probably post some of the other photos we took but instead here's the famous sculpture of 'The Little Mermaid'. Many Danes we met cringe to see this as the icon of their capital city, as it is a small and undistingished artefact at the periphery of the place, but it provides an interesting object lesson that I believe the open source community would do well to learn.

By using it as a token of the city, people largely forget that the place has over a thousand years of history, three magnificent royal palaces, the world's first 'theme park', eclectic and excellent dining and many other qualities. So too, by carping on about licenses and no-cost software, the open source movement has distracted the casual observer from the real qualities that make open source the future - great, more secure software, built by professional engineers in a collaborative way that fits more people's needs, and with the costs distributed and indirectly channelled.

Just as Copenhagen's statue was a good addition to their heritage but has become a burden, so maybe the phrase 'open source' is due for replacement, having served us all well for five years? Professor Benkler's [via Lessig] phrase "commons-based peer-production" says it well but is hardly snappy. Once people grasp the core of the concept, they often have an aha! moment. We need a new phrase that will prevent detractors from focussing on the ephemeral.

posted at 7:14 PM (UK) | |