Building on open-source
Advantage over Software
Simply put, open source is a superior approach at building and distributing software because it provides important guaranties around how software can be discovered, tried, operated, collaborated on and packaged.
If I could only use a single word to describe why the time is right for organizations to adopt open source BI, the word would be freedom. Flowing from the principle of freedom comes a few more concrete superpowers for an organization:
- the power to customize, extend and integrate
- the power of the community
- avoid vendor lock-in
Advantage for Individuals
- Open-source approach equals open-minded approach.
- Locking in within a certain ecosystem also locks our mind into solving problems in a particular way. When we reach the limit of the tools at hand, we are pushed to think that we reached the overall limit.
- In open-source, the possibilities are limitless – which can be daring at times –, hence there is quite probably a solution to almost every problem we encounter.
- Given that open-source is not limited to one language, we tend to learn more over time when hitting a wall with one.
- As we often connect multiple small pieces of puzzle together on local first, we learn to use it as a tool and customise it to fit our needs.
Contributing open-source
Motivation
- I’m learning to solve interesting problems associated with larger and more complex codebases
- I’m building relationships with interesting people across the world
- Satisfaction from building tools that improve others’ working lives
- Unique elements to my career story
- Recognition in the data community has proved extremely beneficial for professional networking and seeking advice.
Lessons Learned
- You don’t need to understand all the code
- Contributing to a new codebase just is hard, but a good workflow will make life easier
- Contribute when you have a reason to.
Links
- OSS Insight – Deep insight into developers and repos on GitHub about stars, pull requests, issues, pushes, comments, reviews..