Open source in Idea development

Open source ! The revolution that is gripping today's world, influencing everything from economics, research & development to social structure and culture. It is interesting to observe how the entire process of developing an idea into a reality has changed with the arrival of open source culture. To me the most important influence has been with respect to the remarkable pace at which ideas are being developed in the open source model.

There was a time when the most priced possession of an intelligent animal was considered to be the ideas that he spawns. "Only an idea can change the world, the rest are details…" goes the most common view of the uncommon. But what the open source revolution has shown is that the changes that we see in the world around us are less because of the ideas and more because of the effort that goes into its development & execution. With more and more people freely interacting with their ideas, the levels of scrutiny an idea must pass and the quality of the developed product has been on the rise more rapidly than ever before.

But is it really necessary to make an idea available to everyone to develop it? Aren't companies spending big bucks on their "secret projects" aimed at introducing revolutionary products and pulling the market shares from under their competitors? Is open source really more profitable than closed door competition?

There are a few key issues one should look at here with respect to idea development:

• Open source works only when there are enough people around who already know what you are talking about. Otherwise its just more people trying to work out the basics and that ain't any better than one person going about it unless you think you are less suited for the job. And if they indeed are better, then you're out of the picture (^_^)

• Open source adds huge value to evaluation of an idea because of the diversity in experience and expertise of the people who might visit your idea. It speeds up the process and also increases the efficiency of assessment. Imagine yourself having to search loads of data on net, speak to I don't know how many people indirectly getting the info you need and trying to figure out all goods and wrongs of your idea.

• The biggest advantage of open source however lies in the number of people it gets enthusiastic about your idea. Everyone prefers to contribute in an effort which they are familiar with then some unknown guy working on a miracle idea. Also, if your idea reaches an expert, then so would have tons of other ideas. So they would prefer to collaborate with someone who is already working on the idea if they like it than dumping you and working on it on their own. So put your fears aside about your idea being stolen ! There is nothing like stealing an idea, it only means that the other guy worked better than you in developing the idea, in which case you would have been more likely to be overtaken by some competitor if you kept the idea all to yourself and started up with it.

However, there is one area of concern to all those people who feel open source is it, for your next big idea:

• Evaluate the advantages you'll get out of open sourcing your idea before putting it on board a bigger group. If you feel that you are not clear about the idea or unsure about your indispensability in the implementation of the idea, then consider if you really want to go ahead with developing it on your own or are willing to tip it off to some other guy and look at focusing on your area of expertise.

[For BITSians: open sourcing is like opening a PS station… It's profitable to get more people onboard provided you are assured of your booty ! If not, then you need to sit and evaluate if its still profitable to hold your contact and do an internship next summer instead. If not, tip it off to your friends and increase your balance in the favour bank.]

Amruth