As we foray in to 2013 and beyond, we see the emergence of everything open (open source, open standards, open courses, open data, open innovation and open spectrum). The IEEE Standards Association along with World Wide Consortium (W3C) is taking steps to meet these challenges by jumpstarting a series of seminars, conferences and workshops on “Open Future Series”. While the verdict is yet to be out, there is already a widespread acceptance from the industry on the following openness.
Open source software
First, the Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement that is founded on the idea that the open development of software is more effective than its proprietary alternative and advocated strongly by the likes of Richard Stallman with the start of the GNU project in 1983. Put simply, it is about access to source code and freedom to modify and distribute it. Though FLOSS had limited success in the PC era, thanks to the strong network externalities of Microsoft Windows, it has gained considerable traction in the mobile operating system platform with the launch of Android by Google.
Today, Android contributes to more than 40 per cent of the handset mobile OS market. The OSS movement exemplifies the creative and proactive ways that Intellectual Property (IP) can be deployed to stimulate openness. Associated with FLOSS is the open standard such as Hyper Text Markup Language 5 (HTML5) that opens up Web programming for innovative applications that can be accessed through the Web browser, thus opening up the Internet and makes applications and service cross platform compatible. Though a late starter, HTML5 is quickly catching up to compete effectively with proprietary applications and platforms, even in the mobile space. In a recent conference, the inventor of World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners -Lee remarked: “This is a platform for all kinds of massive platform innovation. It’s also cool because it lets you program for a browser — and browsers run everywhere.”
Online Courses
There are Massively Open Online Courses (MOCCs), a recent phenomenon that is beginning to disrupt higher education worldwide while generating its own controversies and hype. The primary reason for this potential for disruption is the sudden surge in the digital platform space - Coursera incubated by Stanford Professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng; edX co-developed by MIT and Harvard; Udacity co-founded by Stephen Thrun, Professor at Stanford, for offering courses online. A second reason is the surge in the top US universities including Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan and Princeton offering their star courses through these platforms. Despite the recent remark by Eric Schmidt of Google comparing the Internet speed in India to that of the US in 1994, tens of thousands of participants in India and Brazil are signing up actively for MOOCs. Despite challenges in assessments, certifications and accreditation, MOOCs is being touted as the next big technology leap to bring world class higher education to the doorsteps of millions in emerging countries.
Open data
Third is Open data that promises to provide transparency, accountability and collaboration especially of governments through technologies such as open data standards. The Open Government Directive of Obama administration in the US, and Open Data Strategy of the European Commission are examples that are likely to lead this initiative forward. However, there are barriers to adoption such as privacy, usability, reliability, trustworthiness and political consequences.
Fourth is open innovation that is based on leveraging knowledge that often exists outside the boundaries of the organisation. Firms such as IBM have pioneered co-innovation networks that bind different technology partners in pursuit of a common objective, with flexible IP licensing schemes.
Stumbling blocks
Are all things rosy in the openness in different areas as described above?
There are problems. OSS that thrives on community based development lacks mature organisational distribution mechanisms, quality certifications and IP management. Open standards are often la lackadaisical in their scalability and adoption, running like a tortoise behind the fast paced propriety standard development process. MOOCs lack validation of original work, containing plagiarism, and offering certification.
Despite the above challenges, the above paradigms have one thing in common: that of bridging the digital divide. It is a huge opportunity for countries such as India that provides the requisite scale to adopt the above and benefit. Especially in spectrum management, where the Indian government and policy makers act supreme, it is time to adopt flexible management including allocation of more spectrum commons to usher in mobile broadband revolution in the country.
(The author works at Sasken Communication Technologies. Views are personal.)