Browser Wars on the Smartphone

And then there's mobility. The browser wars are back, said O'Reilly, but they're back on the phone. Fortunately, though, "Big companies like Google are putting a big stake in the ground saying 'we believe in open, we have to believe in open,'" he said. Google understands that if the mobile phone isn't open, they're toast. To explain the import of this attitude, O'Reilly explained, "This is like Microsoft in 1995 embracing open source rather than them embracing it today."

Mobile is critical, O'Reilly said, and there's real action happening in the open phone space. Some of the examples he offered included Open moko and Google's Android.

Another promise is Moblin, which was discussed at length by Dirk Hohndel, Intel's chief Linux open-source technologist. Intel wants to engage the open-source community to create a new category of Internet-centric devices such as mobile Internet devices and automotive in-vehicle infotainment systems.

Moblin has been around for a year, said Hohndel; its initial adopters were not open-source developers but rather people who were thinking about products to build. Obviously, said Hohndel, Intel wants people to build projects. "But I want to see the open-source developers—to see the community run with it and to make it their project," he said.

Intel is currently putting together the software stack for the next instance, Moblin 2. "We're going to open this up to the public at a developer camp, in three to four weeks," he said. "The hope I have is that the community takes this from us, that the community makes it theirs."

Open-Source Movement, Applied to Security and Privacy

But those are just the technology challenges. The open-source community has political power, too, and can shape the future of how technology affects our lives. At least that's the opinion of Christine Peterson, president of Foresight Nanotech Institute.

Petersen largely pays attention to nanotech, but she also draws connections between technology and how it's used. (This is your cue to mutter, "Use this power for good and not for evil.") For example, she explained, dogs can pick up smells from a single molecule; nanotech is heading in that direction. That one item has power for social change. "We tax income," she said. "What if we could tax pollution?"

On the other hand, sewer monitoring has begun. That's good for things that need to be detected, whether because of terrorism or health risks. But some municipalities are using nanotech sewer monitoring to test for illicit drugs. "There's no reason that they couldn't take it to the property line," she said. "You guys are going to have a lot of influence on how this plays out."