The collaborative model of open source
In a market economy, where competition plays a decisive role, the collaborative space of open source can appear heresy. Like most products, computer software, from video games to operating systems, is developed in the strictest confidence, away from the prying eyes of competitors. Then it is sold to consumers as a finished product.
Open source software, which has its roots in the collaborative climate typical of the dawn of the computer industry, is based on an approach opposite to those of commercial software. The code is public and anyone is free to take it, modify it, share it, make improvements and add new features.
Open source has been a surprising success. In fact, open source software now powers over half of the world's websites. In the form of Android it is present on more than 80% of smartphones. Some governments, including Germany and Brazil, force governments to use public domain software. A choice that reduces their dependence on the large software multinationals.
In particular, cybersecurity personnel appreciate the ability to inspect, in detail, the source code of the products they are using.
Open source mobilizes economic resources
The open source model is perfectly compatible with the goals of a commercial enterprise. In July, IBM paid $34 billion to buy Red Hat, an American software house that has developed a free, open source operating system. Red Hat built its business by providing ancillary software and technical and training support to system users
Now the public domain model is spreading in the field of chips. The University of California, Berkeley developed the RISC-V architecture a decade ago. It is a set of open source technologies for microchips.
The same are doing, right now, many large technology companies in Silicon Valley, such as Google, Nvidia and Qualcomm. In August, IBM open sourced its designs for its Power microprocessors. These moves are important and great, for two reasons.
The economic aspect
The first is cheap. The chip business is highly concentrated. RISC-V competes with the closed-source design of Arm, a Cambridge (UK) company, now owned by Japanese financial institution Softbank. The Arm architecture has a monopoly on the chip market for tablets and smartphones. It is also dominant in the rapidly growing “Internet of Things” sector. IBM, with its Power microprocessors, will challenge Intel's supremacy in desktop computers and data center systems. The fierce competition that is brewing could drive prices down and accelerate innovation.
The geopolitical aspect
The second reason is geopolitics. America and China are engaged in a sort of technological Cold War. This state of affairs threatens to damage the ICT sector which has become completely globalised. The open source model, if widely adopted, could help defuse these tensions, giving satisfaction to both sides.
The open source components are based on an alternative supply chain to the purely commercial one. A supply chain less subject to the control of a single country.
The Chinese and Indian examples
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has already developed a machine learning RISC-V chip.
Xiaomi, a maker of smartphones and other consumer gadgets, is planning to use RISC-V chips in its fitness bands.
If Android weren't open source, Huawei would be in an even darker hole than it is right now.
Other countries are also affected. The Government of India has invested in the development of RISC-V. He is also eager to develop a technology ecosystem as soon as possible that minimizes dependence on other countries.
In an effort to reassure companies using its technology, the RISC-V Foundation is relocating from America to neutral Switzerland.
Open source and the Chinese threat
Many in the West see China's rise as a major technological power as a problem. The main concern is that Chinese technology could become a Trojan horse. That is, the tool of a repressive dictatorship to steal secrets or, worse still, to sabotage nations increasingly dependent on networked computers.
Again, open source technologies can start to change the big picture. Most Chinese products are closed "black boxes" containing software and hardware whose internal mechanisms are neither accessible nor knowable.
The consumer advantage
Especially for software, and to some extent for hardware as well, an open source model would give buyers the ability to compare what they got with what they were promised. Their confidence depends on how verifiable this equation is.
Tech warfare is a battleground for world supremacy between a hegemonic superpower and one that aspires to be hegemonic.
A declared war would be enormously costly and would force most countries to side with one side or the other. The open source model can help calm things down.
It would be good for everyone.
