Tim O’Reilly

Tim O’Reilly is the last speaker today. Tim talks about the paradigm shift towards open source.

A change in world view that calls everythng you knwo into question. The last paradigm shift in computing was the PC paradigm shift. There, a key development was the coming of commodity hardware based on an open architecture (“IBM-compatible PCs”). Another important feature of the PC paradigm shift was that software was decoupled from hardware, creating not one, but two (overlapping) industries.

The open source paradigm shift is happening now as part of the wider internet paradigm shift. We’re seeing commodity software with an open architecture, and information applications decoupled from both hardware and software.

The main characteristics, the three C’s:
– Commodisation
– Customisation
– Collaboration

What are the business models? All over. Linux as the BIOS of the internet OS. Many possible new “Intel Inside” possible, such as J2EE. But mainly, the new business models are about services. Both various professional services, but also services to the end users. UUnet, BIND, etc are relevant models. Offer a core service, but also offer “add-on” service, like BIND who could have done domain registrations, or Apache web hosts offering web hotels.

“Jeff, you’re pissing in the well” (Tim to Jeff Bezos of Amazon when they filed for a patent on one-click shopping)

One ring to rule them all OR small pices loosely joined?