I am very proud of the accomplishments I made on this site in 2013. I devised my plans to create this news blog in March, when I began to come across a lot of awesome developments in open source technology during my graduate studies in Information and Communication Sciences. In a few short months I deployed the website you see in front of you, and I began to delve into the world of writing. I quickly developed a passion for open source and the process of writing about it.
2014 will be the first full year of operation for Open Source Today and if 2013 was a year of new beginnings, this will be a year of growth. I want to use this year to expand on the capabilities and usefulness of this site, and I want to generate more content on a regular basis. As always, life changes and new opportunities are always arising so this site will probably change as I do myself.
Important Subjects
I want to begin by highlighting a few subjects that will have a significant focus on this site over the next year. This is certainly not a comprehensive list considering the incredible number of open source projects popping up on a continual basis, but I believe the subjects will be particularly important over the year to come.
The State of Open Source
I started this project for the sake of informing myself on the roles open source is playing in our current society. I have only been researching this topic in depth for the last year and I felt it was important for me to finish this so that I have a comprehensive view of the open source landscape. It is my firm belief that we are currently witnessing a pivotal transformation in the use of open source in our society as technologies based on open source designs become more easily accessible by the day. My primary goal with this project is to create a single hub of information about open source projects so that anyone interested can find resources to learn more. This year, I plan on finishing this series and establish the first version of this hub.
Cryptography
This is the year that Cryptography goes mainstream, led by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Modern cryptography formed the basis of wireless communications and has evolved to have many additional uses. I believe that we have only seen a fraction of the useful application of cryptography and I believe that this year, a lot of people will be talking about the potential for cryptographic protocols in many areas of our lives including social media, darknet communications, and voting systems. Many are comparing the potential impact of cryptography to that of the internet, and I don’t believe this comparison is far off.
Open Source Ecology
A lot of parts of the world are facing severe problems associated with high costs of living and a lack of jobs that have adequate pay. OSE looks to alleviate some of these issues by developing a set of open source tools that anyone can use to “start their own civilization.” This project has been particularly successful in recent years, and I think this success will only continue to grow. In addition, I have the benefit of knowing a member of their team, and I hope to get involved with this project first hand. I think this group will serve as a model for many future open source projects by creating a powerful set of tools that will be replicated around the world.
Changes to the site
I am always looking for new people to make contributions to this site. In particular, I want to begin posting articles that spotlight specific open source projects, and I want to provide a location for anyone that is developing an open source project to showcase their project and have it reviewed by staff at Open Source Today. If you are interested in participating in this, please contact me at opensourcetodaynews@gmail.com.
I intended for this site to be continuously improving and changing so I will continue to make improvements. I am not entirely satisfied with the layout of the homepage and I have plans to build my own custom design from the ground up; I hope to begin on this project some time this year.
Thank you for taking the time to read my site, I hope to continue providing you with valuable information.
-Ben Lloyd Pearson
