Open Source - The Redeemer from the Financial Crisis

The stories of the Great Depression of 1930’s have become so common to everyone’s ears nowadays. The economic slump of the 1930’s took almost 15 years to completely restore back to the original condition of the economy. We should be considered lucky that we do have some alternative source to earn money as compared to the bread earners of that era. Today’s common man in his leisure time as a result of “The October 08 Crash” will be sitting in front of their computers uploading his limited knowledge on the net which allows him to do so.

The hardest hit market is the US market and it is the moral conscientiousness of every individual to help the economy come out of its nadir state. Americans should question themselves for their moronic act as each individual has a contribution towards this global financial crisis. It is expected of them to now take up a job which will pay them plain hard cash as remuneration. A search for an alternative profession will surely bring them to the World Wide Web which might result in more people taking up blogging or citizen journalism.

Unemployment in America is already reached a 5 year high of 6.1 percent. Things look gloomier when leading economists such as Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman predicting it to rise to 7 percent.

An affirmative repercussion of the present pecuniary pall would certainly have an effect on the minds of the intellectuals to realize the true monetary value of employment. If this leads people to change their attitude and a shift in their cultural influences, the result will definitely turn out to be superior. For the Open Source applications to develop into a major force to reckon with in the near future, the solution lies in today’s two major problems viz. Mass unemployment and Global Economic Crisis.

Andrew Keen writes,

As we contemplate the world post-bailout, when economic reality once again bites, only Silicon Valley’s wealthiest technologists can even consider the luxury of donating their labor to the latest fashionable, online, open-source project.

The point he makes is pretty simple i.e. the onus lies on the IT experts to come up with an elucidation of today’s hostile environment which might bring an alteration in the manner the businesses are handled on the internet. For sure, the online businesses have to increase for it to solve the riddle of alternative employment. This might result in the launch of many more software applications which would have Open Source application aplenty in them. Successful illustrations worth mentioning are the success stories of Knol, Mahalo, iTunes, and Hulu which have brought back the Open Source passion in the lap of the Internet user.

There should not be one insinuation of self qualm when people like us think of revolutionizing the Web and the Open Source applications with a sense of belief and enjoyment. True, may be, Open Source is the global answer for the worldwide question of mass unemployment and financial catastrophe.

Your thoughts?