Latest in Industry and Research Publications

  • You just don’t understand (open source edition)

    You just don’t understand (open source edition)

    Listening to open source developers complaining about companies not donating money and then getting ignored by said companies reminds me of a quarreling couple, where one side has a lot to say and the other side is just silent. Let me turn this silence into statements a company would make. Let’s go! Open source developer:…

  • The future of the open source definition [Computer Magazine]

    The future of the open source definition [Computer Magazine]

    I’m happy to report that the 26th article in the Open Source Expanded column of IEEE Computer has been published. Title The Future of the Open Source Definition Keywords Open source definition Authors Dirk Riehle Publication Computer vol. 56, no. 12 (December 2023), pp 95-99 Abstract: Many forces pull to change the definitions of what…

  • Conference talk and magazine article for the Open Logistics Foundation

    Conference talk and magazine article for the Open Logistics Foundation

    In May 2023, I gave a talk about user-led open source consortia at the Open Logistics Foundation’s (OLF) open source innovation day. In a user-led open source consortium, software users come together to develop or sponsor the development of the software they need to run their business as open-source software. The OLF is an excellent…

  • Should open source projects denounce users who aren’t donating money?

    Should open source projects denounce users who aren’t donating money?

    Right now, the top blog post on the OpenCV website (an open source library for computer vision and machine learning) is about how Snap Inc. uses OpenCV in its products (and presumably makes a lot of money partly thanks to it) but does not donate at all to the project. The blog post promises to…

  • A systematic analysis of problems in open collaborative data engineering [TSC Journal]

    A systematic analysis of problems in open collaborative data engineering [TSC Journal]

    Abstract Collaborative workflows are common in open-source software development. They reduce individual costs and improve the quality of work results. Open data shares many characteristics with open-source software as it can be used, modified, and redistributed by anyone, for free. However, in contrast to open-source software engineering, collaborative data engineering on open data lacks a…

  • Myopia: Is it a feature or a product?

    Myopia: Is it a feature or a product?

    A common mistake of inexperienced entrepreneurs is to confuse a feature with a product. The best recent illustrating example I can think of is the flashlight app: For a short moment in time, you could sell flashlight apps for mobile phones until Apple and Google came in, assimilated the flashlight function as a feature into…