Sun Microsystems announced today that the its opening up the source code for its popular Java software platform. With Java powering some 3.8 billion cell phones, supercomputers, medical devices, and other gadgets, the announcement represents one of the largest additions of computer code to the open-source community and marks a significant shift for a company that had once fiercely protected its source code.
Like an increasing number of large software vendors, Sun recognizes that openning up its platform is a good way to broaden its community of collaborators, boost support for its products, and create spin-off opportunities for Sun and its partners. The Java announcement falls on the heels of a slew of open source initiatives from Sun, which includes the inner workings of its SPARC microprocessor technology. Nevertheless, its fair to say that Sun is playing catch up with IBM, whose early foray into open source provides lessons for anyone seeking to harness peer production in their business.
Like Sun today, IBM did not set foot on its journey into open source from a position of strength. Many of its proprietary offerings in Web servers and operating systems were failing, and the company was having a hard time unseating entrenched rivals like Microsoft. IBM started investigating open source software in 1998, eventually donating large volumes of proprietary software code and establishing teams to help the Apache (Web server) and Linux (operating systems) open source communities.
Today Linux services and hardware represent billions of dollars in revenue, and IBM estimates it saves nearly a billion dollars per year over what it would cost to develop a Linux-like operating system on its own. With IBM arguably now years ahead of its competitors, the company’s involvement with open source communities provides a quintessential example of how smart companies are harnessing openness, sharing, and peering to create unrivaled value.
As Tim Bray, director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems, put it in an interview for Wikinomics: “Just as it’s true that a rising tide lifts all boats, we genuinely believe that radical sharing is a win-win for everyone. Expanding markets create new opportunities.â€
