I. Introduction – Open source nowadays (’13)

Trend report

Title:    Open Source nowadays (‘13)

Subject Description:

The report will analyze and elaborate the situation where does open source software (mainly) and hardware stand nowadays, and how well is keeping up with nowadays rapid development of technology and trends.

Motivation:

Open source software (and hardware) always played very important role in web. Unfortunately, it was not very popular among small group of web users but with today’s internet availability and performance, open source became one of the biggest trends known in World Wide Web. Its development grows rapidly and functionality improves with (literally) every second.

Facts and figures:

The number of people connected to the internet is way higher than coupl of years ago. Therefore, the involvement in open source development reaches its top. Fast improvement of open source results in unbelievable increase of its users and donors.

Arguments:

The report will also consider pros and cons that open source technology usage has for societies’ development and privacy, relevant to recent political developments where certain governments are using software as a mean for tracing and spying.

Based on the facts, statistics and analysis of the position open source nowadays, the paper will form an opinion and recommendation.

Market impact:

With nowadays rapid development of the technology of software and hardware, especially mobile tech. (android, iOS), a small choice taken by masses will have huge impact in the world’s future in many areas. Open source is or has a chance to become one of the most important factors in this activity.

Personal Interest:

Being an Art & Technology student-enthusiast, I spend quite some time reading about the new technologies hardware and software. Since I learned about open source technology, the idea and many successful projects impressed me. I believe that there is big potential in it, but it is not ideal. Nowadays I use several of those projects and contribute occasionally. I would like to use this opportunity to research this topic and explore it in depth.

Questions:

How did open source contribute to the world?

What are pros and cons?

Where does it stand in comparison with trending proprietary alternatives?

What are its issues?

What is its future?

What improvements does it need?

Report based on following sources:

pcworld.com; wikipedia.org; gnu.org; bbc.com; newyorktimes.com; pingdom.com; linux.org; theguardian.co.uk; mozilla.org; www.vim.org; theverge.com; ubuntu.com; indiegogo.com.