Open Source: Salvation or Suicide?

Open Source: Salvation or Suicide?

LeeAnn Wisniski

Elizabethtown College

        This week’s case study touches on the fictional scenario of Martina Dirweg and her employer KMS. Further, the issue at-hand deals with the dilemma of whether KMS should go open-source with their popular electronic game Amp Up. The software for Amp Up is currently closed-source with KMS, meaning no other company, person, etc., has access to the software code. Competition is becoming fierce in this realm of musical gaming, but Martina, known as Marty, is hesitant to open up to that competition.

        Enter Marty’s brother, Evan, who is pro-open-source. The article goes on to discuss how he helps her explore the pros and cons of opening up her product to an open-source environment. Marty’s eyes begin to open a little more when she realizes that there are multiple companies out there trying to duplicate Amp Up, some of which KMS is suing. Contemplating open-source, Marty is concerned for Amp Up, and further, she is concerned as to how her developers will react. Marty thinks that because the popular band Z3 made an appearance using an Amp Up ax, that KMS can coast on Amp Up’s popularity. Unfortunately, Marty must rethink this strategy when it is brought to her attention that Z3 has made another appearance, this time with a competitor’s device, which is more sophisticated than that of KMS. At this point, Marty starts to think about what her options are, and how KMS should proceed.

        Following the first part of the case, four experts weigh in on this fictional scenario with their thoughts on how they would proceed to the cry for open-source. Those experts are Jonathon Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems; Eric Levin, executive vice president of Techno Source; Gary Pisano, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; and Michael Bevilazqua, partner and cochair of the Technology Transactions and Licensing Group of law firm WilmerHale. Their opinions run the gamut of “go open-source!” to “protect your asset and stay closed-source!” Earlier this week, we posted our opinion on whose idea we thought was the worst of the four, with the ability to choose more than one. In that scenario, I stated that