The O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) is an annual convention for the discussion of free and open source software. Open source has seen tremendous support over the last decade after going through a dark winter of software commercialization in the 80s and 90s. A historical turning point was when Netscape released the Netscape Communicator internet suite as free software in 1998 and the source code was used to spur Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey and KompoZer.
Background on Open Source:
Proponents of Free and Open Source (FOSS) during the 90s included heavy weight Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. For instance, a Microsoft executive stated in 2001 that “open source is an intellectual property destroyer. I can’t imagine something that could be worse than this for the software business and intellectual-property business.” Fast forward nearly two decades, and Microsoft has reversed direction, and is pining for the open source community to accept the company as a contributor and supporter of open source.
Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, and the founder of OSCON, was at the strategy session in April of 1998 when the term open source was coined. Open source software today has won the war with most software development containing open source code and many previously opposed corporations changing their stance to support FOSS. According to the Open Source Initiative, the movement has caused a $60 billion loss for proprietary software, which correlates to $60 billion in customer savings per year.
This year’s conference reflected the relative calm confidence around open source development with most keynotes used for marketing purposes to win over the attendees on using their services rather than anything news breaking. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM were among those bidding for the crowd in the keynotes.
Blockchain Technology Decline: False Signal?
Interesting enough, O’Reilly’s insights showed blockchain technology losing interest from software developers in the keynote on developer audience insights. The term fell 18 points in their rank points to number 26 on search terms. Kubernetes, the open source container framework, was effectively number 1.
According to Brian Behlendorf of Hyperledger, blockchain technology is not likely to create the next Amazon or Google as it’s more of a cooperative consortium. In his session, “2019: Year of professionalization for open source blockchain,” he pointed out that 45% of companies stated they would join with their competitor on blockchain technology development.
With that said, 80% of companies have not put blockchain technology into production and the market is very early. Many mistakenly think blockchain technology is synonymous with crypto, however, some of the most compelling use cases today include traceability with the food supply chain, judicial consortium chain, routing and settling insurance claims, and digital identity within businesses and government agencies. These uses are currently being explored by companies, such as Wal-mart with FoodTrust, LegalX Chain, the Intelligent Health Care Network and the OrgBook.
Here are a few more companies putting blockchain technology into use:
- NASA for secure flight data
- Honeywell for used aircraft parts market
- Chinese Central Bank’s has processed $4.36 billion on blockchain trade platform
- Malta is using smart contracts to initiate and register rent remittance
- Visa is planning to join a growing list of blockchain-based international payment providers
Behlendorf also pointed out that the United States is more averse to centralized technologies overall. Intermediaries in finance, such as SWIFT, are more comfortable for people in the United States compared to other countries around the world. Therefore, the trends presented by O’Reilly may not be reflective of blockchain’s use globally.
