How your team can use Open Source to improve productivity [Storytime Saturdays]

All about the spooky term that has Google Shook

May 07, 2023

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On Saturdays, I will cover stories/writeups covering various people’s experiences 📚📚. These stories will help you learn from the mistakes and successes of others. These stories will cover various topics like Leadership, Productivity, and Personal/Professional Development. Use these to zoom ahead on your goals 🚀🚀

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Today’s piece will be a follow-up to yesterday’s article. We covered the implications of the leaked document containing a Google researchers assessment of the ‘LLM Wars’. Here is what the document had to say about the AI Wars between the Tech Giants Google and Open AI (Microsoft)-

But the uncomfortable truth is, we aren’t positioned to win this arms race and neither is OpenAI. While we’ve been squabbling, a third faction has been quietly eating our lunch.

I’m talking, of course, about open source. Plainly put, they are lapping us. Things we consider “major open problems” are solved and in people’s hands today.

This has left a lot of business leaders/managers reeling. The role of Open Source in tech has been well-known to software engineers, but the people not directly involved with code often overlook open source. Many tech discussion groups I am part of have been discussing open source and its role for companies. In this article, I will be going over how your group can unleash the power of Open Source to help your organization. If you’re still not convinced take a look at the following quotes-

… once you discover the power of the Open Source Platforms (good ones obviously), the corporate senses of ROI, Gross Margins, and EBITDA strikes sweeter chords. I have had the first hand experience with an IOT Project. We had burnt our hands with Azure and then we stumbled across this thing called Thingsboard.io The ROI just blew our roof.
-A tech leader describing the power of open source in their projects

or this article by BCG-

For instance, open source Linux powered 75% of the public cloud workload in 2020, and its share is expected to rise to 85% by 2024. Some of the most popular software development stacks – such as the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) and MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js) stacks – are open source software. Last year, around 85% of the world’s smartphones ran on Android, the open source operating system built on the open Linux kernel (See Exhibit 1.) Unsurprisingly, the ability to work with open source software is fast becoming a requirement for all software.
-Why You Need an Open Source Software Strategy

This discussion by the Forbes Technology Council is a good discussion on some pros and cons of Open Source. No matter, what source you prefer one thing should be clear- open source is powerful. As a tech leader (or someone aspiring to become one, as many of you have stated) it is important to know how to use this powerful movement in tech.

How Businesses/Organizations can unleash Open Source

Why Open Source is a win for everyone- Some of you business people might not fully be sold by the power of Open Source. After all, the traditional MO is always to protect the IP or at least sell it as a product. How does sharing the code with everyone help business objectives? Simply put- Open Source Contributions bring benefits to everyone. Obviously, high-quality contributions help the industry at large, by giving them access to better tools. And it helps people trying to break into industries by giving them something to work on. But what about the company sharing these tools? Simply put- the company gets sharing these tools gets access to countless hours of valuable insights, debugging, and developer engagement with their tools. Let’s get into these benefits in more detail.
A rising tide lifts all boats
-A good metaphor to consider when looking at open source
Open Source and Debugging- The biggest benefit of sharing your work online as open source is that it acts as a great source of developer insights and debugging. Take the example of Pytorch being released to the public by Meta. Pytorch is clearly a great framework for deep learning, which is why it gained a lot of attention from developers. And as more people decided to try messing around with it, they continued to find more errors and flaws in the system. This continued to enable improvements in PyTorch, which was good for the AI Community and PyTorch itself. It also helped Meta, since Meta was able to use these changes in their work itself. As of writing, PyTorch has 5k+ issues flagged with thousands working on it. Consider that- thousands of people working on a Meta tool without Meta having to pay them. And Meta will reap the rewards.
Open Source and Conway’s Law- Conway’s Law is well-known in Tech and Management. It states- Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure. When it comes to software, we see this play up in software architecture and design. Code bases will be structured similarly to your team’s communication structures- bringing with it the same flaws. Exposing it to open source can allow you to gain lots of outsider perspectives- something that is invaluable to designing better solutions. Once again, as people structure your code better, you will gain valuable insights into how you can improve your company structures. To those that want to learn more- this video on Conways Law and Code is phenomenal.
Open Source and Hiring- Fostering Open Source is a great way to come across new development talent. Stories of companies hiring people directly off their Github contributions are well known. But this isn’t the only benefit of such an open source when it comes to hiring. By sharing their solutions and tools, organizations don’t have to worry about training developers in those solutions. Let’s take PyTorch as an example. Because it is so well known, Meta doesn’t need to train new hires, since they are likely already experts.
Open Source and Platform effects-This is relatively simple to understand. As you open-source solutions, teams will build platforms on top of it, making the industry more reliant on these solutions. This increases outside investment into these technologies- further pushing growth. The primary organization responsible for organizing the open source will be in the perfect position to benefit from this new growth.
How your Organization should proceed with open source- There are different ways that you can use open source software for your business, depending on your goals and capabilities. Here is the broad overview:
- Use open-source software as a foundation for your applications and services. You can choose from a variety of open-source software stacks that provide ready-made solutions for different domains and platforms. This is helpful because your organization will have a lot of insights into the capabilities of the platform, which can be great for security. Given how much of the world runs on open source, you’re probably already doing this without realizing it. But looking for more active integration will benefit you. This can help cut down costs, reduce time to market, and be really good for getting things out there.
  Because open source technologies, including the ubiquitous Linux operating system, are free to use, they are challenging to value in economic terms. The survey dug deep into open source software use by more than 430 companies, 43% with annual revenue in excess of $1 billion, and including many of the Fortune 500.
  -Source
- Develop your own open-source projects or contribute to existing ones. You can create your own open-source software projects to solve your specific problems/ share your innovations with the world. This will bring all the benefits discussed earlier.
- Support open-source initiatives and communities. You can support open-source software by donating money, resources, or expertise to open-source projects. You can also join or create open-source communities that connect you with other developers and users who share your interests and challenges. By doing so, you can guide innovation in key areas of interest, and your firm’s involvement with the community will give you a first-mover advantage.

As software becomes more specialized (front-end, back-end, ops etc are all differentiating) there is more value to getting involved in the movement now than ever. Open Source is huge, and you don’t want to miss out on the benefits.

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