Weapon of mass collaboration

In the current age of the “prosumers” (or proactive consumers), businesses
still marketing the traditional way are missing the beat. The Internet has
placed power squarely in the hands of savvy net users around the world. And
businesses that lead today are those that have embraced a mass collaboration
model, one that enables a mutually benefi cial relationship with customers by
providing them with the ability to collaborate and co-innovate, giving them a
voice, and choice, in a world that is shrinking as a result of uninhibited
information fl ow.

Mass collaboration, which is built on the foundation of open source, is a
phenomenon that can no longer be ignored. An example of the booming success of
mass collaboration is YouTube, the popular online video sharing site. A
lesser-known but no less innovative example exists in the Chongqing motorcycle
industry in China, where the supply chain is shared among hundreds of small
businesses, each focused on designing and producing a single part.

The mass collaboration among suppliers in this instance produced quality
motorcycles that grew to 15 mn units in just over a decade, and grabbed market
share from better known Japanese and Western manufacturers.

NEW AGE ART

Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams, two modern-day thought leaders,
described this business evolution as Wikinomics, defi ned as the “new art and
science of collaboration”. In a book of the same title that is commanding the
attention of enterprising business leaders throughout the world, the authors
expounded on how weapons of mass collaboration are up-heaving the face of
businesses today. The advent of powerful collaborative tools is giving end-users
across the globe the power to shape the way businesses conduct their daily
operations, interact with consumers, and develop new products.

The truth is, mass collaboration and open source are not new concepts.
Arguably, it fi rst emerged in the software world, where, in 1991, a young
student by the name of Linus Trovalds, at the University of Helsinki released
the fi rst version of Linux, created out of hobby. Today, Linux represents a
compelling choice to a growing number of individual consumers and enterprises
that refuse to be locked in by proprietary software giants with their high
licensing fees and restrictive upgrades.

REASONS FOR SUCCESS

There is now a proliferation of powerful open source applications, trusted
by many large corporations across the globe and supported by a strong community
of developers and users, united by their common quest for widespread innovation
and freedom from cloaked source codes.

The reason for the success of the open source movement is simple; businesses,
just like consumers, want a choice of platforms, applications, and service
providers. They do not like being held hostage by powerful software vendors with
often high-handed and exorbitant licensing policies.

However, let's examine the open source industry from a broader perspective in
the light of four principles proposed in Wikinomics as the new business
imperatives.

Openness: Open source thrives on the promise of shared knowledge, continuous
innovation, and transparency. Open source software is constantly open to the
injection of new ideas from its community. Source codes of applications are made
available to anyone who wishes to learn it, make changes to or improve, so that
there is continuous improvement of the product. As a result, bugs in the open
source software are discovered more quickly and enhancements can be made
available without the need to wait for a major release. Users of open source
solutions are thus not tied to a software companys' marketing time lines, where
new product releases are based on perfectly timed campaigns designed to drive
revenue, and not innovation as it should be.

Peering: There is no hierarchy in the open source world. Anyone in the
community can contribute to product development. Open source recognizes that
intelligence and skills are not limited to the top echelons of the community.
This gives way to a simple paradigm-that best software wins. Software
development is no longer the privilege of elite teams, and it is no longer
bundled with the latest release. Open source solutions are made available to
users who can download only what they need, so they can exercise choice over the
applications they wish to deploy.

Sharing: Open source software has grown because there is a channel to discuss
ideas and issues openly, leading to the growth of a strong network and community
which thrives on sharing of knowledge and expertise. This gives rise to
collaborative innovation and collective advancement. Anyone can be a member of
this community, and ideas are generated collaboratively with the best solutions
chosen for deployment.

Acting Globally: The open source community is a global convergence of users
and developers from various walks of life, brought together simply by their
common interest. The diversity of the community in itself adds to the richness
of the shared knowledge. The openness, peer support, and unlimited sharing
within the community epitomize globalization at its best.

HERE TO STAY

That said, while most of these capability-enhancing solutions are made
available freely, and their source codes downloadable for easy customization,
businesses need committed service providers to help them get the most out of
these solutions. Businesses should seek out partners who can package the best
open source solutions with enterprise-class support, with the assurance of
reliability, flexibility, scalability, and security.

Already, open source solutions are widely deployed in enterprise technology
deployments in many Indian and Asia Pacifi c corporations such as LIC, Bharti
Airtel, HDFC Bank, Reliance Communications, Axis Bank, IIT-Kanpur, China
Telecom, AIS in Thailand, the National Bank of Australia, and the University of
Seoul in Korea, among many others.

The time has come to reap the true value of open source. Hail the era of
unbridled innovation and the freedom from technology dictatorships. If
Wikinomics is indeed the future of the global economy, then open source
solutions will be the platform of choice in this new age.

Nandu Pradhan

The author is President and MD, Red Hat India