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Harvard Adds Open Source to its MBA Curriculum

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the to-BeOS-or-not-to-BeOS dept.

mjasay writes to tell us that Harvard has started teaching open source to its aspiring MBA candidates. In the latest issue of Harvard Business Review, Harvard presents business managers with a tough decision: To open source a successful (but increasingly vulnerable) product or guard its intellectual property zealously? As the case study's open source proponent suggests, "Open source is like a rising tide. You either float with it or drown."

4 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Grey area by ijustam · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the case study description:

    Eric Levin, the executive vice president of Techno Source, suggests that KMS take a middle path: license its software to third-party companies and add features to promote community building.
    I, personally, hate it when this occurs. In my experience these companies never seem to get it right and usually end up tarnishing the entire brand. I hate to be so black-and-white, but the mix of company policies could just... be awful. If they licensed an add-on to a company who hired crap programmers that could tarnish the entire line.

    Maybe I'm just bitter because then it seems like a game of "monkey in the middle" and they're tossing the code around and won't let me have it. Jerks.
    1. Re:Grey area by that_itch_kid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From the case study description:

      Eric Levin, the executive vice president of Techno Source, suggests that KMS take a middle path: license its software to third-party companies and add features to promote community building.
      I, personally, hate it when this occurs. In my experience these companies never seem to get it right and usually end up tarnishing the entire brand. I hate to be so black-and-white, but the mix of company policies could just... be awful. If they licensed an add-on to a company who hired crap programmers that could tarnish the entire line. Maybe I'm just bitter because then it seems like a game of "monkey in the middle" and they're tossing the code around and won't let me have it. Jerks. It's a prime example of a business trying to get the advantages of the open source development model without giving back to the community. I think you'd be quite right in saying this is Doing It Wrong.
  2. What about Zimbra? by amasiancrasian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a prime example of a business trying to get the advantages of the open source development model without giving back to the community. I think you'd be quite right in saying this is Doing It Wrong.

    I have to say I disagree. If you look at how Zimbra (open-source Microsoft® Exchange slaughterer) works, it really is a miracle that you get a first-grade email server with CalDav, Jabber, Wiki, self-updating and indexing search, with a MySQL-based message store connected by an OpenLDAP implementation (with capabilities of integrating with other directories) in an interface of commercial quality and usability, you will find that this is open-source wedded with commercial enterprise done right.

    And I don't disagree with their business model. I think it is perfectly acceptable for them to ensure that commercial releases are tested thoroughly for QA, and that connectors integrating with commercial technologies such as Outlook or iSync stay commercial. I have no qualms about paying for an Outlook connector or an iSync connector. If you don't pay for the commercial edition, you're on your own like any open-source software. But at the very least, you get to run a mail server that is not crippled and probably a very formidable competitor to Exchange (which sadly can't run in Opera, Safari, or Firefox).

    I don't see why you guys don't think this can work. These companies deserve to be rewarded for their hard work, and they are making money by adding value to a product, not crippling it. If you're an all open-source user any way, why would you need an iSync or an Outlook connector? Perhaps the only thing they could do better is change their license to GPL instead of MPL.

    Oh, and I hope Microsoft doesn't buy Yahoo. Because your next upgrade path is Exchange, if Zimbra isn't released from a Microsoft merger or forked to a new project.

  3. Floating by bazonic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Open source is like a rising tide. You either float with it or drown."

    That's a great sound bite, but in reality, the big money-making technology is closed. Google, while being a great OSS advocate, will never open source what truly makes them money - their search algorithm. Apple, Adobe, SAP, Symantech, MS, etc, are not going to open their cash cows any time soon and are floating just fine.
     
    OSS is not going away, but to say you have to open or drown is hyperbole. There is room, and reason, for both.