This is not new, but it is a debate which I missed and some readers may be equally unaware off. With web 2.0, software is becoming a global application, and no longer something that needs distribution. So the original motivation for open source sharing is falling away.
This is the argument of Tim O’Reilly in a first post. In a more recent contribution, he outlines 3 strategies for replacing open licenses, with ‘open services’.
Here’s a summary of his views, by Jon Lebowski:
“The architecture of participation beyond software. What we’re calling Web 2.0 draws on the self-organizing principles behind the open source movement, but moves beyond that into the architecture of participation, which involves the user in the development process.
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Asymmetric competition. Open Source can “compete in a way that undercuts all of the advantages of incumbent players,” but companies forming around Open Source don’t grasp the implications of the new model. Asymmetric competition means that you compete on resouorces, processes, and values that are different from the competiton’s, building critical mass with a more or less different market. Think Linux vs Windows. If open source companies compete symmetrically with other companies, they sink into the same stew of VC-financed build-and-sell bigco wrangling, while bootstrap companies who see a new model for doing business and go with it will build the next round of real innovation.
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How Software As a Service Changes The Points of Business Leverage. Tim says it best: “Operations and scalability lead to powerful cost advantages; increasing returns from network effects lead to new kinds of lock-in. The net effect is that even when running open source software, vendors will have lock-in opportunities just as powerful as those from the previous generation of proprietary software.”
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Open Data. If we value open systems (such as free and open source software), we should remember that data driven systems as we have with Web 2.0 aren’t open if the data’s locked down.
Tim goes on to say “the pendulum always swings between open and proprietary, and despite the apparent progress of open source and open standards, right now the pendulum is swinging the other way,” and note the real challenges for open source strategists.”