Open Source 33#
In software engineering, the source code of a software product is not kept proprietary, but is freely accessible for anyone. Generally, this could be applied to any technology details of any product. Others can contribute to the product, but also use it free as a sole user. Money is typically earned with services that are complimentary to the product, such as consulting and support.
Examples: Iconic Cases
How they do it: Wikipedia started almost entirely open, anyone could create articles, and any Wikipedia article could be edited by any reader, even those who did not have a Wikipedia account. Modifications to all articles would be published immediately. Governance mechanisms were introduced when vandalism and manipulation of its content became a problem. In 2018, Wikipedia’s open source content database consisted of 2,5 billion individual edits to 50 million articles by 80 million users.
Learn more about Wikipedia →
How they do it: Pebble released an SDK for developers to publish their own apps on the Pebble Watch, called PebbleKit. After being acquired by fitbit in 2015, parts of the source code for Pebble’s firmware was published to GitHub. This sparked a community of developers aiming to create an open source alternative to the discontinued PebbleOS, called Rebble.
Learn more about Pebble Technology →
How they do it: Swift is a programming language developed by Apple Inc. for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux. Swift was introduced at Apple’s 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Initially a proprietary language, version 2.2 was made open-source software under the Apache License 2.0 on December 3, 2015, for Apple’s platforms and Linux. In 2018, Swift was declared the number one programming language to develop mobile apps for iOS by TIOBE index, a measure of popularity of programming languages.
Learn more about Apple iPhone/AppStore →
How they do it: Google has set up a separate portal for open source projects. This allows 3rd parties to use and further develop Google technologies. One important feature is the community, which allows discussion around the open source projects and collaboration on their development. Projects range from apps for their smartphone operating system Android to various web tools and computer science technology.
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How they do it: IBM is one of the pioneers of open source development and showed how open source projects can be successful e.g. with the operating system Linux, which follows the open source approach. IBM runs a platform for open source projects and has released some of its technologies under open source licenses. The platform enables developers and researchers to collaboratively develop solutions.
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Below, the top industries for the pattern "Open Source" are displayed, in order to get insights into how this pattern is applied across different industries. We've collected data from 5 firms using this pattern.
Top Industries
18% of firms using pattern
9% of firms using pattern
6% of firms using pattern
All Industries
Below, the pattern "Open Source" is analyzed based on co-occurrence, in order to get insights into how this business model pattern is applied in combination with other patterns within the firms we studied.
Top Co-Occurrences
3 pattern co-occurrences
3 pattern co-occurrences
2 pattern co-occurrences