The+Open+Source+-+Second+Life+Model

The Open Source model for business is slowing transforming the world. While this model is not for everybody, businesses need to understand how it derives its power and decide when they can benefit from the model. Open Source provides a specific legal construct for publicly sharing software source code. (Source code is the human-readable instructions for the software, which are customarily not made available to the public.) Under the Open Source licensing agreement, anyone can use the software and its source code for their own purposes, modifying it as needed, with the understanding that they will report the changes that they have made. In this manner, worthwhile changes can be incorporated into the original source code.

Increasingly software is being produced and shared in this manner. The most notable Open Source technologies are the ones now referred to as the LAMP suite: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP / Python / Perl. These separate technologies were developed independently, and made possible because of the Open Source sharing, demonstrating its power. This suite drives a majority of the available web hosting facilities.

The power of the Open Source model is that it lets users drive software development. Literally anyone can customize their software, and so improvements often come from the ground up.

IBM reinforced the business value of the Open Source model when it used the Apache software as the foundation for its proprietary WebSphere facility. This demonstrated one viable business model for using Open Source software: Proprietary software can be built on top of Open Source software. Other models involve the sale of hardware and/or consulting, while giving the software away. This approach was successfully adopted by Sun Microsystems.

Many businesses and organizations now incorporate the Open Source business model outside of the software domain. For example, the Open Government initiative and several media initiatives (for example, the Open Media Project and Open MIC) espouse Open Source principles. This is what the Living Widgets project calls the Open Source / Second Life model.

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world populated by user-controlled avatars. Linden Labs, the creator, provides the browser to use the facility and manages a portion of the virtual real estate. However, users provide 95% of the content and support in Second Life. With many users seeking to create their own “second life” in this environment, the users are the ones defining the environment, with Linden Labs serving mainly as an advisor.

The Open Source / Second Life model offers these four powerful incentives:
 * 1) Users drive product development, ensuring that the product truly serves the needs of the customers.
 * 2) Development is collaborative, incorporating the best of all ideas.
 * 3) Product development is leveraged, allowing a company to accomplish much more through collaboration than they could alone.
 * 4) Customers are more committed to the product line, than they would be with products that are solely corporate-produced.

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