🌐 What Is Open-Source?
Open-source software (OSS) is code that is designed to be publicly accessible — anyone can see, modify, and distribute the code as they see fit. Open-source software is developed in a decentralized and collaborative way, relying on peer review and community production.
Open source has become a movement, a way of working that encourages innovation through collaboration, in contrast to the hierarchical, proprietary nature of traditional engineering. Open source projects vary greatly in scale. Some are simple applications created by an individual in hours; others are large-scale initiatives developed within organizations, including major corporations. Some of the most popular recent software written for the tech community is open-source.
💼 Manfred’s Experience
Contributor to 500+ projects on GitHub.
2022
Founder of DareToFork a label that seeks to ensure that free and open-source software can grow and prosper, and to recognize and highlight the impact of all the actors in the open-source world
Launched Moula.tech to publicly share Web3 experiments
2019
Co-founder of the Paris P2P, a community for crypto and peer-to-peer technology enthusiasts offering free and open meetups in Paris (and growing). Less than six months after the community’s launch, the Paris P2P Festival had 2.5k attendees from France and elsewhere.
2018
Founder and CEO of Berty Technologies, a secure peer-to-peer messaging app that works with or without internet access, cellular data, or trust in the user’s network. Fully open-source.
2016
Received recognition from Google’s Open Source Programs Office
2009
First open-source project release: assh
💡 How PMG Can Help
Releasing some or all of your codebase as open-source could improve the quality and recognition of your product, but it’s not without overhead, nor is it appropriate for every project. PMG can use our years of involvement in open source to help you make this decision.
If a shift to open source makes sense for your project, we can help you through the process of doing so in a way that maximizes your chances of getting noticed by developers who can make impactful contributions.
Using software collaboration tools that you’re probably already using (the best-known is GitHub) to open source your code can invite broader perspectives beyond that of a single company. Open-source practices can also lead to considerable engineering savings, with many OSS tools using a shareware or donation model.