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Open Source Blog
Where in the world does open source come from?
July 07, 2006
Matt Asay's recent comment that "open source is not a Silicon Valley phenomenon" has sparked a debate about the importance of location, and got me thinking about where open source software comes from. Meanwhile I stumbled upon the mylocalguru tool and before I knew it had created a Web 2.0 style mash up showing the location of some of the leading open source vendors.
The result, available here, plots the location of the vendors on a map of the world and shows a reasonable spread across Europe, Asia Pac and North America.
You can also drill down on the various geographical areas for a more detailed view. Europe is here, Asia Pac here, and North America here.
The latter map shows how important the East coast of America has been in terms of the growth of open source in the US, but does not allow for the density of vendors in Silicon Valley. As can be seen by focusing closer on California, (enterprise) open source is now very much a Silicon Valley phenomenon.
What this map does not take into account, of course, is where the individual developers are based - it is a representation of enterprise open source providers, as opposed to open source developers - and it would be interesting to see how different that map would look (if it were possible to create one).
I'll admit that the map itself doesn't really tell us much - but it's a work in progress and hey, it's a Web 2.0 mash up, it's meant to be vague, self-fulfilling and of questionable real-world value. If you are interested in how it was done, the background data is here.
As to the question of whether it matters where an open source provider is based, I'm reminded of this quote from the excellent Australian film, The Castle, about a family living in a house at the end of a runway:
"As the real estate agent said... location location location, and we're right next door to the airport. It will be very convenient if we have to fly one day."
Comments
What would be a better indicator in what states/provinces that Debian Developers are from.
Hmm, this list is missing a bunch of Southern California open source companies: Gluecode Software (Apache Geronimo - Los Angeles, acquired by IBM but still here); LogicBlaze (ActiveMQ - Los Angeles); Mergere (Apache Maven - Los Angeles); OpenPro (Orange County); SIPPhone (Gizmo - Diego); SwitchVox (San Diego); SQL Fusion (Lawndale); NovaCoast (Santa Barbara); TextDrive (San Diego); Koders.com (Los Angeles); Fonality (Asterisk - Los Angeles); probably more...
Hey there,
You're missing us folks in Africa:
KnowledgeTree
http://www.ktdms.com/
Regards,
Daniel
This would be way cooler if it used Open Source software for the map as well. Given the data, one could build such a thing with OpenLayers, for example. OpenLayers is a BSD-licensed, pure JavaScript API for building map applications on the Web. See http://openlayers.org/ for more details.
Location of many Debian developers, which should be representive of the overall situation, at least for the western world:
http://www.debian.org/devel/developers.loc
The center of free software seems to be Europe. But the heart is in Boston at the FSF.
You forgot to include Novell (Salt Lake City, Utah)
The problem with the mashup above (well, one of the problems - not that Matthew Aslett said it was perfect) is that it has no sense of proportions. Yes, there are now a BILLION open source startups in the Valley...but I can count on two fingers the truly successful ones. Where are the biggest, best open source companies located (or where were they founded)? Without exception, outside the Valley (and most of them outside the US).
Two years from now, will I need to change my opinion? Perhaps. But two years is a long way away. Two years away, in fact. :-)
Matt
Missing open source companies.
There are obviously many missing open source companies, for instance for Paris where my company (Nuxeo) is based, as well as several others (Disruptive Innovations, XWiki, etc.)
A good start for an overview of individual developers are sites like:
http://worldwide.kde.org
They certainly don't concentrate anywhere near the Valley :)
I think the point that this represents company headquarters locations rather than actual software production locations is an important one. For a step in between, there's the map of Debian Developers, who package free software for the Debian distribution:
http://www.debian.org/devel/developers.loc
Hi,
We're running an open-source based company in Spain, Europe and I know of atleast three other companies here. Maybe there is a lack of information about what's going on here?
On the other hand: I've never heard about most of the companies that you're listing in the valley area.
Cheers,
Frank
Thanks all for your comments - and the suggestions of missing vendors. I knew I'd missed some, but I wanted to get it published. I'll try and update when I get a chance.
Novell is there by the way (Waltham, Mass) but that raises a goog point about a company's head (quarters) and it heart (development base).
I'd not seen the Debian or KDE maps before - very interesting, and a better representation of the role Europe has played.
Maybe someone could link these and similar maps together but that is frankly beyond me.
Good point, Matt, regarding size and significance, I agree the role of Europe is undervalued by the map.
One of the points I think Matt was making that I agree with is that Europe does not have many globally recognised software vendors right now, and it should.
Those are the ones I have included so far, but there are plenty more local providers - so many that it would be difficult to know where to stop...
If there is a v2.0, I'll see how that can be taken into account, maybe via OpenLayers.
See also http://live.gnome.org/GnomeWorldWide with a map of GNOME contributors
Here is another one in CA bay area. OpenClovis (www.openclovis.org) provides open source product for the world first carrier-grade middleware that bridges the gap between enterprise-grade applications to be deployable in a carrier environment.
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