Open source means making your source code available so others may use and adapt it. During the coronavirus crisis, this accelerated innovation in research, healthcare and pharma.
In brief
- Open source means opening up your source code so others can use, adapt and reuse the software without a financial obligation.
- Whether to go open source depends on your project goal: unsuitable for confidential trade secrets, but a good fit for improvement, reputation and knowledge sharing.
- More open-source software lowers the cost to society, because code is reused and improved rather than rebuilt from scratch.
- During the coronavirus crisis, open source accelerated the response through data analysis (Our World in Data), hospital forecasting (CHIME), 3D-printed medical hardware and a data platform from Pfizer.
What is open-source software?
In essence, open-source involves making software's source code available to others, granting permission to use it. This allows individuals and organizations to utilize, modify, and apply your software for their own purposes without financial obligations, depending on the license terms. In contrast, proprietary software can only be modified by its original creator.
Open source as a way of thinking
The modern economy centers on collaboration, knowledge sharing, and collective learning. This practically means considering cooperative approaches rather than competitive ones. Given today's rapid innovation cycles, the ability to adapt and learn quickly is essential for staying current. Moving forward alone proves insufficient; collaborative learning provides the solution. This aligns perfectly with open-source software's core principles, making it a valuable innovative thinking methodology. Netherlands has historically embraced this collaborative approach, with our economy built on knowledge sharing and open principles.
Should I make my software open source?
- Commercial purposes: Projects with clear commercial aims and proprietary information critical to business models may find open-source unsuitable.
- Improvement without monetisation: When project objectives focus purely on improvement without profit motives, open-source becomes viable.
- Reputation and innovation: Open-sourcing projects can enhance reputation, demonstrating genuine innovation and collaborative thinking.
- Economic and social benefits: Increased open-source software reduces societal costs. Reusing and improving others' work accelerates innovation and enhances social learning curves.
Making software open-source offers benefits, but the decision depends on project objectives. Economically, more open-source software decreases overall societal costs through collaborative improvement and reuse, resulting in faster innovation cycles and more efficient social learning.
Examples from the Coronavirus Crisis
- Data analysis: Our World in Data collects and provides extensive datasets for virus research.
- Hospital admission forecasting: CHIME forecasts hospital admission peaks to enable capacity planning.
- Open-source medical hardware: 3D-print communities produced medical equipment using open-source designs.
- Open source in the pharmaceutical industry: Pfizer launched a platform for data and tool sharing.
Researchable & Open Source
Researchable advocates open-source adoption and makes projects open-source where feasible. Working extensively with scientific institutions where knowledge sharing remains fundamental, we support this approach. Whether projects become open-source depends on client objectives. For commercial purposes like SaaS models, open-source often proves undesirable.
Frequently asked questions
What is open-source software?
Open-source software opens up the source code to others, so they can use, adapt and apply it for their own purposes without a financial obligation. With closed software, only the maker can make changes.
Should I make my software open source?
That depends on your project goal. For confidential trade secrets open source is unsuitable, but for pure improvement, reputation and knowledge sharing it is a good choice.
What are the benefits of open-source software?
Open source shows innovative and collaborative leadership and lowers the cost to society, because code is reused and improved instead of being built again and again.
How did the coronavirus crisis stimulate open-source software?
The crisis accelerated open-source collaboration on several fronts: Our World in Data shared virus datasets, CHIME forecast peaks in hospital admissions, 3D-printing communities made open designs for medical equipment and Pfizer launched an open data platform.
How does Researchable approach open source?
Researchable promotes open source where possible and works with scientific institutions where knowledge sharing is central. The choice depends on the partner's objectives: commercial models sometimes call for closed software.
