(This essay is derived from a talk at Oscon.)
Lately companies have been paying more attention to open source.
Ten years ago there seemed a real danger Microsoft would extend its
monopoly to servers. It seems safe to say now that open source has
prevented that. A recent survey found 52% of companies are replacing
Windows servers with Linux servers.
More significant, I think, is which 52% they are. At this point,
anyone proposing to run Windows on servers should be prepared to
explain what they know about servers that Google, Yahoo, and Amazon
don't.
But the biggest thing business has to learn from open source is not
about Linux or Firefox, but about the forces that produced them.
Ultimately these will affect a lot more than what software you use.
We may be able to get a fix on these underlying forces by triangulating
from open source and blogging. As you've probably noticed, they
have a lot in common.
Like open source, blogging is something people do themselves, for
free, because they enjoy it. Like open source hackers, bloggers
compete with people working for money, and often win. The method
of ensuring quality is also the same: Darwinian. Companies ensure
quality through rules to prevent employees from screwing up. But
you don't need that when the audience can communicate with one
another. People just produce whatever they want; the good stuff
spreads, and the bad gets ignored. And in both cases, feedback
from the audience improves the best work.
Another thing blogging and open source have in common is the Web.
People have always been willing to do great work
for free, but before the Web it was harder to reach an audience
or collaborate on projects.