Life 2.0: Different kinds of free on the Web

My last column, about free online applications that replace pricey desktop programs, inspired a few readers to write back with excellent questions about Open Office.

The difference between that free program, designed to compete with Microsoft’s Office suite, and Google’s free online applications is minute but important. Aside from how they run (GoogleDocs is a Web application and Open Office is a downloaded program), there’s a difference in how they’re built.

GoogleDocs is free because the company sells the popularity of its sites to advertisers the same way this newspaper sells ads based on subscription and readership. More eyeballs on the page equals more money from advertisers and free services mean more eyeballs. Open Office is free because it is open source: In a nutshell, that means the suite of software is free because the development of that software is done through voluntary collaboration called open source development. Many programmers donate their time to contribute to the software, and when a version is completed, the “source code” typically is licensed for free to everyday users in the continued spirit of collaboration.

Now this isn’t as simple as saying that a big corporation or private enterprise always sells something and keeps its source code private while individuals are open source. Most average Web users have run into the Firefox browser — the second most popular browser after Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

It’s also an open source success story. Since its public launch in 2004, Firefox has become enormously successful — in part because the open source development enabled it to have a leg up on the outdated IE.

The open source idea can go one step further beyond Web browsers and office software suites and into the everyday world. Today you can find open source projects in nearly every possible niche.

I would consider this column as an example of open source journalism, since I consider readers to be active participants in the creation. But there’s also an open source fitness program called CrossFit (crossfit.com). Scientists are also diving into open source experiments. One curious example, at OpenSourceScience.net, is an ongoing open source experiment to find out if dogs anticipate their owners’ return.

It’s a pretty cool idea.

Ideas for this column? Send them or other comments to stevenrneuman@gmail.com.