Is Open Source really open?
“Open Source means standing on the shoulders of giants” — Marc Andreessen
Free Open Source Software is arguably the most dominant trend in tech right now. Whether it’s Javascript, Linux, Android, and now Bitcoin, there’s no industry that open source isn’t impacting.
Despite its huge importance FOSS is still pretty unknown to the masses. Not only are they unaware but it’s largely irrelevant to them. Why? because the majority of FOSS projects are inaccessible without a certain level of coding skills. You must be this technical to innovate.
Creating websites used to be like this. Then Wordpress came along. Now everyone with an idea for a website can create one on their own, and they have to the tune of 74 million+ Wordpress sites. Blender allowed more creative minds to express themselves in 3D without spending thousands of dollars to start. Sayonara, pay to play. That’s the power of Open Source.
So is Open Source really open? Not open enough.
If just 1 easily accessible project can lead to a Cambrian explosion of the Web how about 5, or 10, or 100 more? That’s what I want to enable with my web app, Trillbyte:
For the past 5 years I’ve been helping my clients build Wordpress and Meteor.js sites that they can control and customize, but like every stack there’s a limit to what it can be best used for without a lot of development.
Close your eyes and imagine if Mark Zuckerberg had been able to create Facebook at 14 instead of 18. What if the Ev Williams had built Blogger, or if Stewart Butterfield had started Flickr faster than they did? How much more would they have been able to accomplish? How much more time could they have spent being founders rather than technicians.
Now imagine if it were simple for anyone with almost no programming know-how to be able to launch their own Bitcoin crowdfunding site, or run a community site for graffiti artists, or even manage a marketplace platform for artisanal anime sticker designers. All on their own, with just a few clicks.
Who knows what amazing things all those non-developers are waiting to create?
Let’s find out.
Let’s open up the rest of the Open Source world to the World.
