Drupal founder Dries Buytaert on software's next big challenges

Next stop the open web

Given his time over again, Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal, would probably just hit repeat.

"I would definitely still go and do something open source, I just love it, and it would probably be something around managing content," he said.

"As humans and organisations we'll always be creating content. And we'll always be publishing content. And we'll always be sharing it with others. That's something we've been doing for thousands of years, and obviously now we're doing it for the web."

Not that he had any sort of grand mission in mind in 2001. He just put something together in PHP to help him manage his website and then decided to open source it. The rudimentary CMS, which he named Drupal (Flemish for drop), grew and grew and is now one of the largest open source projects in the world, used by one in 30 of all the sites on the web and featuring refinements by a total of 100,000 contributors.

Buytaert puts this growth down to being open source, which he says is "simply a superior way of developing software in every sense" - and being in the right space at the right time.

Open source may now be the de facto way of producing software, but things were very different back then. Branded a ‘cancer' by Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer - who, to his credit, spotted the threat open source represented to his company's proprietary business model - it was far commonly put in the ‘geek hobbyist' box and simply ignored. A lot of people disagreed with Buytaert's choice.

One of open source's strengths is that it allows software to evolve organically. Drupal is a case in point. Over time, it has acquired new modules, libraries, refinements and integrations, adapting to changes in online business environment.

Drupal has "evolved from web content management to digital experience management," said Buytaert.

"What people are trying to do today is to get people to visit their websites and then convert them into customers, and that requires websites to be integrated with ecommerce platforms, with CRM systems, with ERP systems, with support systems, you name it. They're no longer just publishing content, they're trying to create a customer experience."

But while the open ethos has aided the rapid development of features and functionality, it's not perfect, as recent tussles over licensing demonstrate, the latest being Elastic's adoption of SSPL. Then there's the fact that a great many projects struggle to support themselves.

There's one thing left that prevents open source from taking over the world, in my mind, and that is figuring out sustainability

"There's one thing left that prevents open source from taking over the world, in my mind, and that is figuring out sustainability and funding models," said Buytaert, who chose the paid services route by founding support company Acquia.

"How do we make it so that open source can be developed and maintained in a distributed fashion? We haven't cracked that yet. I'm excited to keep working on finding ways and to be an example for other open source projects in how to organise and govern and coordinate your open source project in a way that's sustainable and healthy."

Another thing that bothers him is the increasingly important role of algorithms in everyday life, and more specifically our lack of insight into the way they work. Algorithms can put people in jail, or manipulate elections, or perhaps one day even start a war, but most are black boxes. Buytaert draws a parallel with home-brewed medicines.

"If you go back 100 years or so, everybody could make drugs in their garage and sell them. You could literally try and come up with some medicine and bring it straight to market. It was crazy and people died."

The reason this doesn't happen any more, at least outside the criminal underworld, is because of regulation by bodies such as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK or the US Federal Drug Agency.

Because of the global nature of digital and cloud, equivalent regulations will not be easy to implement, requiring a supranational body like the UN or WEF to take charge, but in Buytaert's opinion governments need urgently to consider options.

One possibility is some sort of widely recognised kite mark or traffic light scheme, he suggests, audited by a respected agency.

"In Belgium there's an ABCD grading for food. It's really cool because it's on literally everything is on a supermarket shelf, and you know instantly ‘Ah, this one is OK or this one might be very bad for you'. You don't have to think about it. Similarly, you could have that on websites, so if it's a D I know they are doing things with my data. I don't have to know what they do, but I know it's bad."

Algorithmic centralisation and consolidation of power is prompting ever more calls for an open web, for the online ‘public spaces' that existed in the early web before being built over by corporate power. Buytaert finds himself alongside the likes of Tim Berners-Lee in calling for a re-decentralisation of the web.

What I like about the open web is that people can really be themselves and show where they are and bring their own creativity

Enforcing algorithmic transparency and openness is one step in reversing the consolidation of power on the web, which is important for media plurality, he said, bemoaning the current depressing homogeneity.

"Your Facebook page looks the same as everybody else's Facebook page. What I like about the open web is that people can really be themselves and show where they are and bring their own creativity and their own presence, and be in charge of their content and their data, the way they see fit. I think it's also important that they can consume information from a lot of different sources versus being at the mercy of a handful of very large platforms that have editorial or algorithmic control over what information people see."

Delivering on this vision could be the next big challenge for open source. It's a tough one but don't bet against it.