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Does It Matter Where Open Source is Based?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the good-anywhere dept.

munchola writes "CBR has created a map of current open source software providers that contradicts the recent assertion of Alfresco's Matt Asay that "open source is not a Silicon Valley phenomenon". That statement has prompted a debate about the importance of location, involving Asay, Robert Scoble, and Dana Blankenhorn. A closer look shows that open source is very much a Silicon Valley phenomenon."

7 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Get slashdotted! by crazyjeremy · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'll admit that the map itself doesn't really tell us much - but it's a work in progress and hey, it's a Web 2.0 mash up, it's meant to be vague, self-fulfilling and of questionable real-world value.
    What have we learned here?
    Google map + Any story + Web 2.0 mash up = Get slashdotted
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    Funnypics
    1. Re:Get slashdotted! by kesuki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      don't worry you didn't miss anything :)

      a map full of baloons claiming that open source only is developed in a few developed nations. completely ignoring developments from africa, australia, and several other locations :) bascially you just saved yourself 15 minutes of your time by not reading the article :)

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      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  2. Makes no sense to me by p!ssa · · Score: 5, Informative

    How does this map show the "the vally" is the center of the OSS world? It is a limited cross section of projects that the creator is interested in, his opinion / perspective is worthless and invalid.

  3. But where are the developers by Hyram+Graff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article:

    What this map does not take into account, of course, is where the individual developers are based - it is a representation of enterprise open source providers, as opposed to open source developers - and it would be interesting to see how different that map would look (if it were possible to create one).

    It makes sense to see so many dots in the Silicon Valley since this is a map of where companies who develop open source software are located. I would guess that if plotted where developers who have created open source software, enterprise or not, are located that you will find a *lot* more dots in Europe and a lot less in Silicon Valley.

    So really, nothing to see here, move along.

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  4. duh by doti · · Score: 5, Insightful

    open source vendors != open source creators

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    factor 966971: 966971
  5. What does "providers" mean? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this just companies that create open source solutions, like MySQL is? Companies that sell open source solutions other people primarily made, like IBM does? Places like SourceForge? What?

    How many important open source projects have one central coordinating authority, like SourceForge or LKML, and the actual project members are spread geographically over the globe?

    Who exactly is on this list, and how were they chosen? The article does not say what the selection criteria was, and I see entries on the map ranging from JBoss (an important project) to "Linux Networx" (Who?).

    If this map tosses in companies like IBM for whom open source is an important strategy but still a peripheral part of their business, but ignores people like Alan Cox living in a little cottage in a field somewhere in Britain, it may be all you've done here is make a map of "software corporations".

  6. Right here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I would guess that if plotted where developers who have created open source software, enterprise or not, are located that you will find a *lot* more dots in Europe and a lot less in Silicon Valley.

    Like this?