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We value and work daily with what is called open tech, i.e. technology that can be shared unimpeded by license terms or patents, and which includes open data, open APIs and open source code. It provides great benefits not only commercially for our customers, but also because it contributes to a general benefit for society. In this blog post, we delve into the points of open source (open source). When you build digital solutions, you often do it to gain business competitive advantages.
You can think that the solution is insanely smart and unique, something that is mine and something you don't want to share. But if you build something on open source code, you turn the concept of competition on its head. Because the more you share with others, the more you can earn from it. Does that sound strange? Let me explain.
Solutions that grow stronger
If you instead look at your solution as a seed, which can grow bigger and stronger over time, you soon realize that the seed needs water, soil and sun. For the sake of simplicity, let's call water, earth and sun resources. How much resources do I have to give? Both authorities and companies have limited resources.
But what if you could open up to a global network of resources that can help nourish and improve your solution? It works and many do. Among others we and our customers.
The more you share, the more you get back
In software development, this is called licensing the solution as open source, for example through the GNU General Public License, version 2. This means that you make your code behind the solution itself available for others to use, modify and improve on their own at no cost. When someone else who used the code then fixes bugs in it, and shares the improved version, it becomes available again to you and everyone else.
So the more you share and contribute, the more you can get back. It is by someone sharing a solution that is used and improved by others that open source continues to evolve without anyone having to pay license fees. There is simply no need for fees when there are many people using and contributing improvements.
What creates the most value for each person becomes a driving force shared by all. This is the case with, for example, the CMS Drupal and WordPress, which are used by tens of thousands of companies and organizations around the world.
Generally becomes self-improving
If you make your solution general, i.e. useful for others, there will be a positive snowball effect where more people care about, nurture and develop it. We help our customers to do that on an ongoing basis. Because open source code is not, as many people think, a way to develop and distribute digital solutions for basement programmers and hobby enthusiasts.
Government agencies as well as commercial and highly profitable companies such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and Intel have built their software development on open source for years.
Opportunities for both large players and small companies
But it doesn't stop there. The beauty of open source code is that even smaller actors can use and contribute to the development. In fact, anyone can benefit from the solutions and improve them. By using and contributing to large networks of open source projects such as Drupal, Matomo, Wordpress, Linux and many more, you expose yourself to developers locally and globally who can and want to improve the code.
We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people. Which is more than most people can dream of paying on their own.
What's good, what's bad?
Who decides what are good and bad contributions? Doesn't it just become a wild west of more or less crazy ideas fighting each other? No. It is true that anyone who wants to modify and use the free software for their own purposes is allowed to do so. But large proven Open Source projects have robust governance whose communities test and validate what is meaningful and safe to distribute to everyone.
If we take an example, 2.1% of all websites in the world have a CMS, i.e. a technical platform that allows you to create and organize digital content, built on the open source CMS Drupal. Another example: Drupal today has 121,000 actively contributing developers in its community, and 1.39 million members in total. That's why so many use and contribute to Drupal and its ecosystem of modules, everything from Tesla and Nasa to Tillväxtverket and the Union.
Future-proof and manageable
The more people who use it and contribute to an open source project, the more future-proof and manageable it becomes. If many have to upgrade, many share the same challenge, and more can benefit from each other. Our job is to develop our customers' digital products so that they are efficient, secure and profitable. And we have a longer perspective than here and now. The solutions must work safely and be ready to develop in the face of future challenges and requirements.
That's why we use open source. When we fix bugs or build features that may be useful to others, we submit our improvements to the community as a natural part of development, with the permission of our customers, of course. It saves time and money for our customers in the long run. We work to ensure that all organizations understand the value in and take advantage of the many great open source projects out there. Do you also want to benefit from the power of global open source communities ? We help you. Because good ideas are colored when they are shared with others.
