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May 31, 2008 7:07 AM PDT

Open source doesn't make Gartner's "top-ten" list

by Matt Asay
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Perhaps the biggest news in Gartner's latest "Top 10 Technologies" report is the absence of open source. Or perhaps its omnipresence. The report offers essentially the same technologies as last year's list, with some curious additions:

  1. Multicore and hybrid processors
  2. Virtualization and fabric computing
  3. Social networks and social software
  4. Cloud computing and cloud/Web platforms
  5. Web mashups
  6. User Interface
  7. Ubiquitous computing
  8. Contextual computing
  9. Augmented reality
  10. Semantics

Open source is nowhere to be seen. But perhaps that's of even more interest: Open source is powering virtually every technology in Gartner's top-10 list. Gartner called out last year that open source is cannibalizing proprietary software at an increasing pace. Open source is the behind-the-scenes director making all these other technologies tick.

Perhaps it's time to start thinking of open source as essential plumbing (in the way that Google does): Everyone has it, everyone uses it, but perhaps there's not as much need to overtly discuss it?

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.
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by jrepenning June 2, 2008 9:43 AM PDT
I dunno that we need Gartner to call it a separate technology anymore, but we (within the echo chamber) need still to discuss it, guide it and guard it.
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by rmdstudio June 2, 2008 9:56 AM PDT
Open source is not "a Technology" but in fact a method of developing technologies and relying on the wisdom of the crowd in regards with innovations, help, support, development and marketing.

In many of those 10 categories there are technologies that are open source, especially that Web2.0 and Open Source seem to be going hand in hand in most cases.

For example, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Ruby on Rails, Mootools, ... are used in many social media and mashup projects.
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About The Open Road

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to the Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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