O'Reilly: Applying Distributed XML to The Open Source Paradigm Shift

"Tim O'Reilly has written and spoken often on what he coins 'The Open Source Paradigm Shift.' I've heard Tim give this speech a few times, and read it a few to boot. The one major point that sticks with me is that the software we 'use' is no longer just on your desktop/laptop, but the software of the internet that we use everyday a la Google, eBay, Salesforce.com & Amazon to use his prime examples.

"Tim goes on to point out that this software that exists only through our browsers or APIs, doesn't play by the same rules as does software that we download and use on our own machines. If I download the source code to the Apache HTTP server I can then compile it and use it in accordance to its open source license. This does not apply to a Google or an eBay. Even if you could download the code that runs Google you couldn't just stick it you home directory and start it up.... there's no value there. It's not the same thing at all. It's Infoware..."

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