IT Essentials: Closing the open source tap

The benefits should flow to everyone - not just those with the biggest bucket

Are open source firms right to blame cloud giants for shutting off supply, or is there a middle ground outside the on/off binary?

Picture the open source community as a tap. For years that tap has been wide open, flooding the market with useful software: from true open projects like LibreOffice, to tools like Java that act as the building blocks for more recognisable names. Even Android is built on top of Linux.

That's the root of the problem for open source developers, and why they are slowly squeezing the tap closed: private companies, with billions in the bank, are free to use their work without paying a penny.

The latest dust-up has come from open source database Redis, whose CMO Keith Messick told John Leonard this week that a rival project, built off a Redis fork, is less a "scrappy band of rebels" and more "the Death Star."

"[It's] a project backed by AWS, Google et al, built off code created over the last decade plus by Redis and the community, so that they can continue to use their superior monopolistic advantages to make money off it."

You could argue that the community hasn't got a leg to stand on: the point of open source software is that anyone can use it. And these tech giants also contribute to open source themselves: Chromium, VSCode and Kubernetes were all developed by tech firms.

The community takes issue when companies, normally cloud providers, repackage open source software as their own service - monetising without contributing. Unfortunately for open source companies, the most common way to protect their own work is, ironically, to become less open, with more restrictive licensing terms that see them accused of open washing.

Is there a less binary approach that means the tap is open, but only flowing to the right places? A few different methods have been suggested, including 'shared source' (open code, restricted use) and the more complex 'Post Open' funding model.

Ultimately, the future of open source lies in controlling the tap's flow so doesn't only flow to the giants with the biggest buckets. The challenge now is how to keep the tap flowing - just enough to sustain the ecosystem, but not so much that it's drained dry by those who don't invest back into it.

Regulators are often seen as a blocker to doing business, but CIO John Seabourn of the North Sea Transition Authority thinks they can be more. He talked to me about his ambitious programme to change how NSTA interacts with the oil & gas industry - for the good of everyone involved.

In the coming weeks Penny Horwood will release the 2024 edition of the Tech Women Celebration, our list of the women blazing a trail in the industry. We've just extended the deadline to apply and the full list will be published in November - the same month as our Women and Diversity in Tech Festival and Women in Tech Excellence Awards. If you're an inspiring woman in tech, or you know one who stands out from the crowd, let us know!

Finally, Derek Britton took a retrospective and future look at COBOL, while David Shepard warned against taking a wait-and-see approach to AI regulation.