Microsoft Open Technology Gianugorabellino and Shengsong talk about open source community construction

More than 90% of China's Internet products are based on open source. However, most developers are "using" the main, lack of true integration of the concept of the open source community, little feedback. How should developers make use of resources for better development and establish open and win-winning open source ecology? This issue has been plagued by the industry.

Recently, a number of media on the Microsoft Open Technology company Open-source Community Senior Director Gianugorabellino and Microsoft Open Technology Co., Ltd., general manager Shengsong interviewed, including the current situation of China's open source and future prospects of the discussion is very interesting, especially in the interview shorthand, to organize, share to everyone.

The following is a transcript of the interview:

China's open source and the internet together brilliant

Shengsong that more than 90% of China's internet-made products are based on open source. China's software development is a dating, directly across the real desktop software development of the glorious period, jump to the Internet development. China's Internet development is from E-commerce, as well as the communication software such as QQ to do it, China in this piece is very good. Open source will develop very well in China because open source is closely related to the Internet. With the Internet, open source has really made the present brilliant.

How do you view open source and open relationships?

Shengsong: In this "move first, cloud first" era, along with the technological leap, the concept of machine-centric transfer to people-centered. In different environments, different platforms, how the various technologies are well integrated is essential, thus highlighting the importance of openness. Microsoft does well in standards such as system APIs, open source, community, and interoperability.

Internet companies will also continue to open up their products, which is a good trend.

Shengsong: This is the future trend, and Microsoft is moving in this direction. The hardware becomes the consumer goods, becomes very cheap, the profit of the consumer goods is very thin. Now the software is becoming a consumer product, it is very difficult to make money by software license, so it should be done by adding extra value to the business. Many companies take their own stuff out, go open source, it has a large number of users, through a variety of other ways to make money, Facebook is. This is the trend. That's why the prospects for open source are getting better as more companies are willing to share their technology.

Is the cost of code maintenance high, is it an important factor in open source?

Shengsong: Yes, the code needs long-term maintenance, improvement, investment is very high, now the development model is a rapid superposition, the first time to make it may not spend too much power, with the long-term five years, ten years of overhead is still very small. You open it up so that the group can help you do it and you get a lot of benefit from it.

The roots of China's open source community need to continue to develop

To build an active open source community, Gianugorabellino, senior director of Open Source community at Microsoft, opens up the idea that open source governance needs to identify two big rules: rule One, the community itself is more important than code; Rule two, let individual developers realize that in an open source community, It's easier to work. "What you do in this community is not objectionable, you have to learn to collaborate with others, and when you build an open source community architecture, be sure to consider its scalability."

Reporter: The United States has a lot of open source community operation is very good, how to view the open source community in China?

Gianugo Rabellino: China to do open source community first can scale, because the scale is big enough; second, China also has the foundation of Science and engineering education; Third, the Chinese people have the will to do such a thing. So my observation of the Chinese community is that the open source community has taken root and is growing fast. But if the Chinese open source community has a very solid foundation for growth, it also needs to do some very cornerstone work.

The first is to define open source. One of the most basic Open-source software is the ability to allow people to use the software anytime, anywhere. In China, software can give you open source to use, and then add another, that is, can not be commercialized to use it. I think this is entirely a misunderstanding of open source and the use of goodwill. So I think the open source community in China has to make sure that there is a common understanding of open source, not just to use open source as a marketing idea, but to comply with the rules of open source software internationally.

What are the prospects for the future open source community?

Shengsong: In China's open source community is not a small audience, is the public, basically every internet company, his basic technology is all open source. Now the problem is, they are mainly used, not really into, the audience is very large, but not very successful things. The reason is very complex, some of the reasons are English environment, you have to communicate in English, to write, these large number of operational work is not very easy. Many community leaders in the open source community think that some of the reasons are food and clothing, the Chinese side of social security is not very high, the social security level is high, we do not have to worry about these problems, people contribute more. In addition, with the enterprise, the law of the perfect relationship.

How to do this thing? If you really want to do it, you can do it. Go further and the situation will be getting better.

In order to promote the development of China's open source, what suggestions?

Shengsong: The community is more important than code. The most important thing to do in China is to do the community well. Just like Chinese football, not finding a football star can make Chinese football better, but how to do it well. Community is a very comprehensive concept, how to do it well, not only use, but also how to feedback, and even in some major software open source projects play a leading role. To maintain vitality, we must integrate into the mainstream, and even play a decisive role in the mainstream.

To be profitable, open source can be implemented through services

Cocos2d-x behind the company Google Technology, Wall Street analysts think that open source game engine is worthless, generally this kind of open source project has the problem of commercialization, many game companies can not directly see the return on business, without the input of manufacturers, the final game engine no one to use, or the code is gone. So from the example of an Open-source engine, Shengsong that open source and profitability need to be balanced.

What is the profit model for open source?

Shengsong: Everyone has been arguing about how open source makes money. This is a very big problem, and in the future software will have less money to sell by license. The hardware is very profitable after commercialization, and this is the case with software. Companies like Google, Facebook, and so on, do not make money by selling software, but by services, or by the value that the software really provides to users. If you can provide valuable things, the company can survive for a long time. The open Source Engine company also does not make money by license, it is to prove to the user is valuable.

Gianugo Rabellino: First, the adoption rate is very important from a business strategy perspective. As a development platform, companies need to find a way to convert high adoption rates into profitable projects.

Developer and open source relationship?

Gianugo Rabellino: I said three points.

1th, we and a variety of technical platforms are cooperative relations, as long as the developers use these technologies, we are working with them.

2nd, as a developer, at the moment you have to choose a technology, whether it is open source and the quality of the open source community behind this open-source project is just one of many factors to consider. The fact is, if the technology itself is not good, even if it is sprinkled with some open source spices, it will not be better.

3rd, in such a new open world, if only talk about open source and closed source relationship, itself is too limited. At the same time we have to consider other elements, such as open standards, community and interoperability. Today, a very clear business requirement is to do cross-platform development, as a company, you need to consider what the business objectives are, the best technology to achieve business goals. In this process of consideration, openness is a key factor.