{"product_id":"the-success-of-open-source","title":"The Success of Open Source","description":"\u003cp\u003eMuch of the innovative programming that powers the Internet  creates operating systems  and produces software is the result of \"open source\" code  that is  code that is freely distributed--as opposed to being kept secret--by those who write it. Leaving source code open has generated some of the most sophisticated developments in computer technology  including  most notably  Linux and Apache  which pose a significant challenge to Microsoft in the marketplace. As Steven Weber discusses  open sources success in a highly competitive industry has subverted many assumptions about how businesses are run  and how intellectual products are created and protected. Traditionally  intellectual property law has allowed companies to control knowledge and has guarded the rights of the innovator  at the expense of industry-wide cooperation. In turn  engineers of new software code are richly rewarded; but  as Weber shows  in spite of the conventional wisdom that innovation is driven by the promise of individual and corporate wealth  ensuring the free distribution of code among computer programmers can empower a more effective process for building intellectual products. In the case of Open Source  independent programmers--sometimes hundreds or thousands of them--make unpaid contributions to software that develops organically  through trial and error. Weber argues that the success of open source is not a freakish exception to economic principles. The open source community is guided by standards  rules  decisionmaking procedures  and sanctioning mechanisms. Weber explains the political and economic dynamics of this mysterious but important market development.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44966458982453,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674012925","price":61.53,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674012929_d5e4bd20-feee-4fad-adb6-38fe2e1b14b1.jpg?v=1772670523","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-success-of-open-source","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}