Earlier this week we discussed how Peter Thiel’s statement, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters,” and how it related to the world of OSS.
One of Peter’s ventures is the Founders Fund, a venture capital firm investing in smart people solving the world’s difficult problems. The Founders Fund Manifesto is an inspirational call-to-arms for anyone in the technology space, one that I’d highly recommend you take the time to read. [Hat-tip to its author, Bruce Gibney.]
I see OSS in the exact same light. As the manifesto articulates, “Along the way, VC has ceased to be the funder of the future, and instead has become a funder of features, widgets, irrelevances. In large part, it also ceased making money… the shift away from backing transformational technologies and toward more cynical, incrementalist investments broke venture capital.” The same paradigm can be seen to be leading OSS down a path towards what many see as impending irrelevance, prime for disruption.
But I see OSS as (potentially) being at the centre of the big bang of an increasingly digital world. Deloitte’s recently released “Tech Trends 2016,” highlights four trends that are accelerating the world’s digital transformation – Internet of Things, Augmented & Virtual Reality, Data Analytics and Blockchain. Throw in machine learning / intelligence and autonomic platforms and we have the basis for the OSS ecosystems of the future (albeit no longer just Operational support systems). We’ve mentioned them all here on PAOSS over the last few years so they’re not exactly way out on the bleeding edge.
The Founders Fund manifesto makes the following statement that has nothing to do with OSS, yet everything to do with OSS, “…many companies pursue the wrong model – they seek to be almost as good as the default product, rather than (as should be the case generally) so much better than the default that customers will rush to switch.”
Another snippet from the manifesto to leave you with, “Real technology companies tend to create durable returns, making timing much less important. If you invested in webvan.com, your window of opportunity was measured in months; if you backed Intel, your window of opportunity was measured in decades.”
Perhaps it’s time to pen a Passionate About OSS manifesto?? 😉
Making your OSS easy to use isn’t about adding more “easyness” – it’s about subtracting what sucks. “To make your stuff “easier to use” you
During my first forays into OSS, over a period of 6+ years, I averaged 85 hours a week whilst being paid for a 40 hour
The call came in at 5:43am. “The routers are acting up again down at 1313 Packetloss Lane” the night supervisor whispered, as if afraid the
Telco appears to be an increasingly tough industry. Demand for connectivity continues to soar, yet profitability and differentiation are becoming ever more difficult to achieve.
Here at Passionate About OSS, we are exactly that – Passionate About OSS (Operational Support Systems). We’re also passionate about BSS, NMS, or any other names you call the tools that help to operationalise your network.
