Scott Berkun

Does open source help or hurt innovation?

Over at the Jem Report, Jem Matzan had some great questions for me about how my studies of innovation relate to the open source model of software development. Here’s a taste:

Do you think that being able to see and modify a program’s source code is a good method of innovation?

SB: Sure. Understanding how things work is the fastest way to learn and gives people who come later reusable, proven methods for doing things. But at the same time, it provides sets of assumptions that are more efficient to follow than to reconsider or reinvent. So depending on what level of innovation we’re talking about (a feature? a product? a line of products? a paradigm?) access to source code has different levels of value. And there’s also the value of mystery — sometimes a locked box forces people to be more creative since they have to invent their own approach. Being angry at that locked box and wanting to figure it out can drive people to innovate who’d be bored if they had permission to take it apart and see the source (as the legions of hackers and reverse-engineers out there can attest).

It’s a great interview and you can read the whole thing here.

• Posted Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 1:18 pm


• in Innovation, Software/Web development | Comment on this » |