Open source the world

I'm having trouble with my car at the moment. I wont go into the full details, but I'll summarize it by saying that after an accident the exhaust was damaged, and seven months down the line it still hasn't been repaired.

The insurance company - unsurprisingly - are in that odd mix and border line between wanting to help and constantly putting obstacles in the way of fixing the problem. There's nothing unusual there, but it's certainly frustrating.

But the real problem is manufacturer. Apparently, for our revision of car, the manufacturer have mixed up the correct part numbers for the replacement parts needed to fix the exhaust. Not only that, but for the last two months two dealers have been waiting for the correct information, but not received it because the manufacturer haven't got round to it yet.

Unfortunately it just goes to highlight one of the big problems with proprietary solutions and data. Effectively what we have here is a bug, just like a computer bug, but the only people who can fix it is the manufacturer. This is much the same problem with software from Microsoft and others; if there's a problem, we are at the beck and call of their engineers to resolve the issue. If there's no pressure to do so, the problem will get pushed back and the engineers will do something more interesting instead.

There are many things that Linux and the rest of the open source movement has taught us, but none more powerful and significant than the idea that allowing users and other interested parties to get involved in your project generally leads to better quality software and quicker fixes for bugs and problems.

When the open source model is used with data you get more information, of a higher quality and usually with a better rate of update and repair than with proprietary solutions. You only have to look at Wikipedia to realize just how good an open source data resource can be.

The open source model means more eyes. And the more eyes you get on the data and the code the more likely you are to find, fix and resolve problems before they become headaches.

What open source doesn't mean is losing control of the data, or even losing your competitive edge. Remember that I'm not talking here about the secret designs for their latest aircraft, I'm talking about the replacement parts for a car exhaust. An exhaust which is a commonly replaced component on a consumer item.

Software companies manage to retain control over their software even when it's released to the public. I doubt anyone would suggest that MySQL are anything but firmly in control of their software, yet I can download their source code in just a couple of minutes. IBM have managed to exercise some control too. Their Eclipse product costs them millions to build, then they open sourced it, and now sell product based on the technology, while still benefitting from the open source model.

Until we reach that nirvana in places other than computing, I'll be spending hours on the phone and writing letters trying to resolve the problem. Wish me luck.