New drivers behind the open source movement today

From the rise of foundations to emerging revenue models, the open source movement is primed for even greater impact on tomorrow's technologies.

Nearly 15 years since the term "open source" was first applied, the trends driving the open source movement are not the same. Back then, price advantage, direct differentiation on licensing versus proprietary software, adoption-led marketing by innovative entrepreneurs, and market reaction against an ever more abusive monopolist were key factors shaping the direction of open source.

Today's open source movement is more mature, and the trends underlining it are more nuanced and widely engaged. The revolution has had a meaningful impact, and to treat open source as if it is still about saving a few bucks on a software license or socking it to Microsoft is to misunderstand how far the open source movement has come.

The following five trends are key drivers of today's open source communities and projects. From governance to emerging revenue models, they paint a picture of an industry evolving to see the value of the freedoms at the heart of the open source movement...

[Below are the headings of the sections of Phipps' article-PJG]

1. The rise of open source Foundations
2. The proliferation of open source licensing choices
3. The specter of software patents
4. Cloud computing: Open source hotbed
5. Big data: Value beyond software