"We’re Now Finding… More Organizations that Actually Find [Open Source] More Attractive than Scary”
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“Open source” is, of course, a technology term. But, as it turns out, when you connect tech-minded people with those who don’t necessarily think of themselves as IT nerds, something magical can happen. In this case, what works in the digital world—transparency, community, collaboration—has a funny way of spilling over into the analog world. Because, well, people are people. We’re wired to connect.
In this episode of The Resonance Test, open source sage Chris Howard chats up two open source experts from EBSCO Information Services: Christopher Spalding, Vice President of Product, and Rachel Fadlon, Vice President of SaaS Marketing and National Conferences & Events. EBSCO is a founding member of Folio, an open source library services platform (LSP), to which EPAM contributes.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) maintains a precise definition for the term, but in broad strokes, open source refers to software containing source code that can be edited and used by anyone. We all use it every day without realizing it. Indeed, open source powers the internet as we know it.
Howard asked Spalding and Fadlon to reflect on what open source has been like at EBSCO, so other companies and industries can learn from an open source project that has achieved scale.
Folio has allowed developers and librarians to work together in an unprecedented way. Being part of the Folio community, says Fadlon, has dramatically transformed the way EBSCO interacts with customers across the company.
The relationships that develop organically in an open source community, which are less formal and more “person to person,” says Fadlon, have influenced EBSCO to be more community-oriented in all aspects of the business.
“The way that you approach someone in the library as a community member to a community member is very different than the way we were approaching our customers before,” she says. “We’ve made a lot more things more transparent and open” since joining Folio.
Spalding says even the language has changed around communications more broadly. “The focus is on, ‘Well, why would that be closed? Let’s make that open. Why wouldn’t we talk about that?’ Let’s put it all on the table because we get feedback instantly, and then we know the direction that we go as a partnership with the larger community.”
Of course, the trio also talked about security and artificial intelligence, the latter playing out differently in different regions.
Open source made headlines recently when Linux, one of the most well-known examples of open source, narrowly avoided a cybersecurity disaster thanks to an eagle-eyed engineer. Open source comes with risks, like anything online. Spalding says security concerns might have pushed libraries away from open source a few years ago, but now, increasingly, libraries are adopting the open source adage: “More eyes, fewer bugs. And definitely, more eyes, better security.”
Howard agrees. “We shouldn’t be afraid of having all of those eyes on us… One of my developers calls it kind of ‘battle testing’ the software, throwing it out to the world and saying, ‘Does this do what you want it to do?’ And if it doesn’t, at least you can tell me … and I can go and fix it or you can even fix it for me if you want to. And I think we’re now finding more and more organizations that actually find that more attractive than scary.”
Open yourself up to a more flexible, transparent future by listening to this engaging conversation.
Host/Producer: Lisa Kocian
Engineer: Kyp Pilalas
Executive Producer: Ken Gordon
