Hello everyone, we are O2OA open source office development platform, today want to solve some common questions for you: O2OA why open source?

In fact, when someone put forward to “open source” at the beginning, everyone was stunned. If we, an IT company that “makes a living” selling software, open source IT, IT won’t sell soon? What development prospect to have again…… Question after question hovered in everyone’s mind.

After several debates, everyone decided to implement “open source”. Speaking of “open source”, it should start from the development of open source software these years!

The development of open source software

The earliest ideas of open source software originated from hacker culture, and the formation of the real open source ideas began with the birth of GNU. In 1984, Richard Stallman, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, established the GNU operating system, marking the completion of the operating system based on the idea of “free software”. Later, with the advent of Linux, open source software gained more support and gradually went on the right track.

Around 2000, open source software entered its second phase, with the emergence of large non-profit organizations such as the Apache Foundation and a growing number of hobbyists coming together for “open source”. The idea of “freedom” is becoming more prevalent in the software industry. Today, Google, Facebook, Oracle, Alibaba, Tencent and other large Internet and IT companies have begun to advocate open source software, the idea of open source to form an unprecedented flourishing.

In recent years, the open source industry has seen unprecedented development. Especially in 2018, Github, the largest open source repository on the Internet, announced that the number of open source repositories on its platform exceeded 100 million, which has gathered more than 31 million developers from all over the world. According to the latest 2020 report, there are 56 million developers on Github, and the open source repository added 60 million in 2020 alone. Thus, the open source trend of thought has now produced unprecedented development.

Today, global non-profit organizations, large enterprises and educational institutions are embracing open source, while small individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises are also following the trend. From another dimension, the idea of open source has developed from the original IT software industry to today’s education, management, design and other industries. We can predict that in the coming years and decades, the idea of open source will prevail.

The choice of traditional IT enterprises

At the moment when open source is prevalent, many traditional IT enterprises are confronted with the impact of these ideas and “choices”. If open source is accepted, how can enterprises make profits? If not, will they be eliminated by the society?

Traditional IT companies make their living by selling software. In the past for a long period of time, enterprises can produce great economic benefits as long as they develop a software, through which they can obtain a contract from Party A. Because there are many Party A with similar needs, enterprises can make huge profits by selling these software to Party A, and also charge a large amount of maintenance fees by maintaining the software, which is their cornucopia. If the software is open source, others can learn their ideas, or even modify their source code and resell it, directly leading to the loss of enterprise profits.

On the other hand, enterprises feel that the input of open source human resources does not produce corresponding returns, which wastes their resources. It’s true that open source is not just about putting software out there. It takes a lot of effort to maintain software, to maintain communities, to share presentations. Companies feel that by paying employees, they should be making them valuable to the company, rather than wasting them on temporarily unrewarding work.

These are real questions that you need to think about.

Understanding “Open Source”

After many rounds of heated discussion, we have a deeper understanding of open source, and our thoughts have been unified.

First, “open source” and sharing help improve the quality of your own projects.

Software is never static, as the market and the competitive environment changes, competitive advantage will also change, only continuous iteration, high-speed iteration can stand. A software project or an enterprise can only succeed if it makes continuous progress. Behind closed doors to the software is a ceiling, whether you think you have much cattle, you are a technical expert, but is not necessarily a business or experts scenario, software evolution speed is limited by the development team and product managers own cognition and knowledge evolution speed, strong unless developers to continue to lead the evolution direction of the industry. To “open source” your project is to allow the entire development community to contribute to the project, sharing the wisdom and labor of everyone for free.

Secondly, “open source” is not useless, it can make the participating employees more skilled in mastering relevant knowledge.

The best way for a person to master technology is to teach it to others. Because when you want to teach something to someone else, you need to have a deeper understanding of it. When companies ask employees to do “open source” projects, write open source articles, and speak publicly, they have to prepare and think clearly, and they get promoted.

Third, “open source” and sharing is one of the best ways to market yourself.

“Open source” can improve the company’s brand image and social awareness. Contributing to the “open source” community is a way to give back to the community and demonstrate the company’s influence and quality, which can pave the way for attracting more talent.

By participating in “open source”, enterprises can not only contribute their own strength, give back to the community, make the whole society mutually beneficial and spread knowledge to every corner of the world, but also integrate the strength of the whole society, so that enterprises can stand in a higher position. And then enhance their brand influence.

Let’s embrace open source!