An article from Analytics Insight provides a high-level roadmap to starting an open source project.
While reducing many of the steps to a single bullet point is of course oversimplifying them, the piece nonetheless does a good job of covering the things FOSS project founders should consider. The editor can attest that one of the community engagement steps, “celebrate milestones,” does indeed do a lot for the project. The takeaway for would-be entrepreneurs is that the start of an open source project can also be the start of your future business.

While you may have heard of this thing called open source, you may not know exactly what it means, or how it can affect you and the software you use. Spiceworks published a solid overview to open source, including its definitions, pros, and cons. While the discussion of licensing is a little simplistic, it’s nonetheless a good place to start to learn about the wonderful world of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).

An article at Forbes (by way of CNBC and Slashdot) details how Microsoft, under current CEO Satya Nadella, has grown its valution ten times to $3.06 trillion. Nadella, who replaced CEO Steve Ballmer in 2014, ushered in an era of increased collaboration, including a significant change in attitude regarding open source. Under Ballmer, open source was labeled “viral software” that couldn’t be trusted and would do harm to businesses that use it. But now the company makes direct open source contributions, while Linux is the top OS running on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. Certainly a number of factors have contributed to Microsoft’s growth over these past ten years (such as acquisitions like LinkedIn, Mojang, and GitHub), but it’s safe to say that embracing open source has also helped Microsoft along the way.

The Canadian healthcare system has been under pressure in recent years, but an article at The Conversation details a study on how open source can help. The piece elaborates on common core values of FOSS, including avoiding vendor lock-in and accelerated innovation. However, it also focuses on the latter, and its impact on total cost of ownership in the absence of ongoing costs such as licensing fees.
The idea that using open source can also free up funds to be usefully applied elsewhere, and the impact that may have, is sometimes lost when discussing the private sector and maximizing monetary shareholder return. But in government, where the budget needs to be spent one way or the other, open source can help maximize value return.

Discover Financial Services’ payback on its investment in open source is detailed in an article at CIO Dive. By focusing on constantly improving the ways it helps customers manage their money, the company cited the combination of “code, community, cultuer, and people” as a key driver of innovation. In addition to adopting inner-source programs, Discover also collaborates with projects such as The Linux Foundation and the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS).