Open Source Businesses and Developer Careers: Who Benefits from Open Source? How and Why?

Title: Open Source Businesses and Developer Careers: Who Benefits from Open Source? How and Why?

Presenter: Dirk Riehle

Abstract: Open source is changing how software is built and how money is made. This talk discusses the economics of open source software from the start-up firm, the system integrator, and the software developer perspective. The talk provides a strategy framework and discusses its implementation using the dual-license strategy. It explains how system integrators use open source in the share-of-wallet wars. Finally, open source defines a new developer career. This talk explains this new career and argues that it creates economic value for some while it makes life harder for others.

Reference: Main stage presentation (invited talk) at the Agile 2008 conference. Toronto, Canada: 2008.