Open source can innovate even beyond software

Open Source as catalyst for innovation and business cultural change

Open source, it seems, is not just a great way to develop code. It’s a way to build better code and launch new ideas that can ultimately ripple throughout the business world.

Following up on last week’s innovation discussion I had a chance to talk with Andrew Aitken, Founder and Senior VP of the Olliance Group on the notion of Open Source as a catalyst for innovation, not just a software development model. I know, heady stuff, right? But Aitken’s work on advocating open source in the California government and his lead role for the Open Source Think Tank qualifies him as one of those smart fellers that one should really chat with about FLOSS once in a while.

Independent of my twitter-sation last week with The 451 Group’s Jay Lyman, Aitken was part of a webinar put on last week by his employer Black Duck Software with Yahoo!’s Director of Open Source, Gil Yehuda, which covered Open Source as a catalyst for innovation and cultural change in the workplace. So it made sense for Aitken to get in touch with me, since my conclusions from Lyman’s comments were in sync with what his webinar was talking about.

Aitken outlined that he and his team were seeing innovation as a driving force for open source implementations, too, with “more momentum and more planned interest,” he explained.

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