Author: Dirk Riehle
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The scope of the opportunity 3/4
tl;dr: The scope of the opportunity at hand is large, much larger than today’s impact of open source. The software industry is large; all other industries together that need software are larger. Much larger. Today’s open source software is mostly serving the needs of software vendors. When you look at the projects guided by the…
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Does the incorporation type matter to open source foundations? 2/4
tl;dr: It doesn’t really matter how a foundation incorporates; what matters is the actual governance. A typical response to the creation of new open source foundations is to decry them as “vanity foundations”. In a few instances, that may be true, but I think as a generalization it is not correct. Usually, companies think first…
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The Apache Software Foundation (@TheASF) is missing out 1/4
tl;dr: The ASF is not serving the needs of companies from outside the software industry well. The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is the original gold standard of open source foundations. Yet its project and governance model takes a one-size-fits-all approach that is holding beginners to such high standards that they may never get started with…
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The 120 seconds open source pitch
I often have to “sell open source” and the pitch for this is ever changing. Here is the current one; it stands at 120 seconds and is aimed at the German Mittelstand. Any feedback is appreciated! “Software is eating the world” says a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. This is not just American hyberbole. Not only…
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Contractions and expansions in organizing software development 2/2
When compared with hardware, software has been only a recent addition to products. Companies have been reorganizing ever since to better deal with software development. Initially, software developers were part of the department that created and brought to market the overall product, with software initially being a small, later a large part of it. The…
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The Meaning of “Digitalization” 1/2
My engineering colleagues are sometimes sarcastic about the (many) on-going “digitalization” initiatives: “Didn’t we do this 20-30 years ago, when we switched from analog to digital?” I guess, they are talking about digitization, not about what is currently meant with “digitalization”. Different from digitization, today’s “digitalization” initiatives are about giving software an equal seat at…