The software industry was built on the premise that software—resource intensive to develop, and potentially very profitable to market—by nature must be in the hands of a single owner. Open source software projects like Linux changed all of that, opening a world where individuals freely give of their time and talents to contribute to software projects that offer no direct financial compensation. On Github alone, there are some 35 million projects under development, by an army of the World’s most talented engineers—for free. Why do they do it? What drives them? And how can individuals and companies benefit from this trend? Moreover, what does this mean for the advancement of sophisticated technologies like artificial intelligence? Answering these questions in this episode of Clear Disruptors is Lew Tucker, VP and CTO of cloud computing at Cisco Systems. Here is an overview of what he had to share:
The source of collaboration: Lew marvels at the scale of open source and delves into both the history and the psychology of collaborative software development. “It’s a fundamental part of the human existence, I think, for us to want to share and collaborate with others, and open source is just the latest way that we’re doing that.” Lew explains what drives engineers, how that was reflected from the beginning of the software revolution and how the industry is now changing as a result of open source.
Stacked benefits: Lew proposes that the greatest benefits companies derive from working in OpenStack are not the economic ones, but rather “in the value that the company gets through their own engineering teams.” He shares how companies are using OpenStack is delivering value to companies as a recruitment and training tool, including offering the ability to attract the best talent.
AI ascendant: From his days with a Boston firm developing one of the first powerful AI supercomputers, through a period of underfunding to the present day, where AI has returned with fresh relevancy, Lew traces the modern history of Artificial Intelligence. He explains how open source collaboration and two more factors are revitalizing AI and offering enormous promise in the near future.
