Open Source is the future

An article I stumbled upon a few hours ago not only brought a smile to my face but gave me a much needed affirmation on where the Open Source movement is headed. It reported that Wikipedia co-founder Dr. Larry Sanger has joined Everipedia, which is going to build an online encyclopedia platform on the EOS blockchain. This, in a way, is like him disrupting his own creation, but I call it innovation and proactivity, and good foresight. He sees the future and he's aligning himself with it, and helping the Open Source movement as a whole.

All this came after I saw a video recently posted by EOS.IO on their YouTube channel in which some of the team members share their views on the Open Source movement and its future, and how EOS is going to affect it. Though it was short, it shared some really strong points. The following stood out for me:

Disrupting the status quo and decentralizing power

Oh yes, the old way of doing things is getting obsolete, and fast. It's happening everywhere and in every sector of human economy. The financial sector, for example, is changing so fast with cryptocurrencies.

Whenever a better way appears, the old system starts losing power. Power is susceptible to abuse whenever it is centralized and decentralizing it reduces the odds significantly, almost eliminating them.

‎Rapid pace of change and progress

This point resonated with what I talked about in my post about Utopian and the power of collective focus. The rapid pace of change that we are witnessing in the Open Source world is due to collective focus and the progress we are making is just unprecedented.

No longer about "me" but about "we"

I think this is by far the most important point of the Open Source movement. With the new systems being developed today, things change from a state where people focus on their own problems, but focus on solving the problems of others. Doing this benefits others and adds value to the ecosystem, and that value comes back to you. As other people do things to solve other problems, their actions benefit you too. Everything will be Open Source and shared, making innovation the true creator of value.

It will be innovate or die, as mentioned by Brock Pierce in the EOS video. The things that die will be the old, ineffective systems that dragged everyone's progress behind. Systems that thrive will be the ones that change things for the better, for everyone in the ecosystem, and at the same time they will incentivize and reward behavior that is productive, while behavior that is counterproductive will be rendered unrewarding and senseless to pursue.

I am so excited about the future of Open Source.

Thanks for reading.

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Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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