Linux Foundation is Eating the World

Abstract

Marc Andreesen’s 2011 article Software is Eating the World suggested that developments in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry are now transforming industries far beyond ICT. By facilitating interoperability, private sector-led technology consortia contributed to these developments, and they will continue to play a critical role as interoperability requirements grow in complexity. Consortia themselves have evolved over time, and continue to change. While historically many consortia focused on hardware interoperability, open source software is increasingly part of how interoperability occurs, and today’s consortia reflect this. The extraordinary growth and rapidly expanding roles of the software-centric Linux Foundation is striking evidence of this new reality. This story holds important lessons for European stakeholders. Within this changed technology standardization landscape there are opportunities for European leadership.