Dana Blakenhorn is one of the keynote speakers here at Liferay West Coast Symposium. He's probably one of the most non-Liferay speakers at this symposium giving him the perfect opportunity to express new ideas to this community of Liferay developers, partners, and users. I love these "strength of weak-ties" guests in conferences as it allows for some people in this crowd to "get it" and run with it.
The description for his talk:
The History of Open Source
(Dana Blankenhorn, Open Source Journalist, Freelancer)
Open source is as American as pumpkin pie. It is shared infrastructure. It is how we advance when no one actor can build what must be built. In this slide presentation, Dana Blankenhorn introduces you to the people, and concepts, that make open source what it is, from cavemen to the Cloud.
Some of Dana's most significant points that I'm taking away with this conference:
- Open Source has always been around...it's about sharing. The success of the Internet (ARPAnet) became networking because with military funding, "money was taken out of the equation". In other words, the general agreement was that you could send it now, worry about the money later.
- Moore's Law of Software - There is no Moore's Law of Software. Software remains hand-made. Productivity rises arithmetically. Without open source the only way to build is through a monopoly.
- Dana worked his talk through three evolutions of open sources. In the latest stage the introduction of apps under the project and the construction of "ecosystems". This is where Dana ties in Liferay as well the just introduced Liferay Marketplace.
- The Cloud and Open Source. IaaS and PaaS are just the start. Saas is the goal.