Monetary and Social Economics of
Information Sharing
Fujitsu Labs of America Technology Symposium 2007
Mårten Mickos, CEO, MySQL AB
Copyright 2007 MySQL AB
The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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"The future is here, it's just not widely distributed yet."
William Gibson
Copyright 2007 MySQL AB
The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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The World is Going Online
1 billion internet users - nearly 3 billion mobile phone users
Copyright 2007 MySQL AB
The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Disruptive Innovations
SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT
MODEL
BUSINESS
MODEL
ONLINE
ROLE OF
SOFTWARE
ORGANISATIONAL
MODEL
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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The Internet Keeps Growing
Netcraft: Total Sites Across All Domains August 1995 - October 2007
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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From Web to Enterprise
66% Are Deploying MySQL or Are Planning To
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Online, People ...
Communicate ... Connect ... Share ... Play ... Trade ...
craigslist
Search & Look Up
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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An Architecture of Participation
Time Magazine 2006 Person of the Year: You
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Why Software Freedom is so Powerful
Number of developers who built our current information
Number of developers on the
society
internet today.
100X
Copyright 2007 MySQL AB
The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Production by Amateurs
"The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people."
Bernard Baruch, Financier and
Roosevelt advisor, 1870-1965
Alla of the above run on MySQL.
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Open Source
• Not a mystery • Not a religion • Not a charity • Not anti-commercial • Not against ownership • Not socialism • Not a business model
• But
a smarter way to produce the goods and a smarter way to distribute the goods
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Freedom Doesn’t Mean Free of Charge
fri ≠ gratis frjáls ≠ ókeypis vapaa ≠ ilmainen frei ≠ kostenlos libre ≠ gratuit libre ≠ gratuito libero ≠ gratis dror ≠ chinam azad ≠ rayegon aazad ≠ muft
freedom of speech free beer
swatantra ≠ vina mulya shadhi nata ≠ bine poisha sudandram ≠ ilavasam svobodnoe ≠ besplatnoe tu do ≠ mien phi
Copyright 2007 MySQL AB
The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Open Source is the Building Block
“The Internet would not exist but for free and open-source software.”
Dan Gillmor,
The San Jose Mercury News
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Major Technology Shifts
- WAS
- IS
PACKAGED
APPS
Web2.0
Enterprise2.0
JBOSS PHP MYSQL APACHE LINUX
CLOSED SOURCE
OPEN
SOURCE
COMPLEX
HARDWARE
COMMODITY HARDWARE
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Pursuit of Software Freedom And Profits
We have two interconnected target groups:
1. Those who spend time to save money
2. Those who spend money to save time
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Proportions
1
10
1 paying customer
10 contributing users
1 000
1 000 non-paying users
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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A Global Distributed Organisation
• 70% of our employees work from home in 100 major locations in 30 countries across 18 timezones
• How?
– Hire self-going people – Install strong sense of mission and company culture
– Be meta-national – Be open – Use online tools – Learn to give praise online – Arrange get-togethers
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Open Source & Business
• Open source is a smarter way
– to develop software – to distribute software – to create ecosystems with powerful network effects
• Other innovators of
– production methods – distribution channels – commoditisation
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The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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Thank you!
"Skate to where the puck is going to be."
Wayne Gretzky
Copyright 2007 MySQL AB
The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database
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