Open Source Everything - Including Cars

The Open Source business model is an extremely interesting one - and I think it's going to become a key tool for startups in challenging large, entrenched, competitors.

In short, Open Source means that anyone can participate in the creation of something, and share in the benefit. But the organisation at the core of the project - and often other businesses that grow up through the community - profit by providing supporting services, premium versions and so on.

This website is built entirely on open source software - and you may well be viewing it in an open source web browser such as Firefox. If it weren't for these tools the web wouldn't have developed because it would have stayed too expensive.

The startups behind these technologies - such as MySql, Zend, Mozilla and more - have all been very successful, despite the fact that their main products are available free.

From that statement, you'd be right in thinking that it takes a bit of time to work out exactly how Open Source works, and how it can drive a successful business. To understand more about the ideas, read the essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Raymond.

To date it is the software industry in which open source has been mainly used, but that is starting to change. And you know it really is gaining ground when the business model starts to be used in an industry like the automotive industry.

At the moment the car industry is dominated by badly run giants and founded on proprietary technologies. There's little innovation - and in fact innovation is stifled because the main players want to reap the rewards of their years of investment in legacy systems. But now the industry has hit the buffers - and that makes it the perfect time for brave entrepreneurs to enter the fray.

New, Entrepreneurial Car Companies

One of the key new innovators (but not open source) is Tesla Motors, setup by one of the founders of PayPal after selling up to eBay. Their mission is to build really cool, really fast, but environementally friendly, sports cars. That's one of their cars pictured above, and here's a video...

You can find out more about Tesla Motors on Wikipedia.

New, Open Source, Car Companies

Now a new Dutch startup has entered the market - with an Open Source business model. C,mm,n has an absolutely terrible brand name (it's pronounced Common) with those daft commas, but they have a great idea...

c,mm,n is an initiative of the Dutch society for nature and environment and the Dutch technical universities of Delft, Twente and Eindhoven. Together they have created c,mm,n; a sustainable automobility concept targeted at future urbanized western Europe.

c,mm,n is a new way of developing, manufacturing and using cars. By making the blueprint of c,mm,n publicly available under an open-source licence we are able to develop truly sustainable mobility. Just like open-source software, c,mm,n focuses on services around the product. You can use c,mm,n to offer people a lease car, rental car or other mobility services. It is allowed to sell c,mm,n too. Just as long as you make any derived work publicly available again.

Here's how the design has evolved so far...

Until now the community around the project have used a Developer's Wiki for the C,mm,n car where anyone can view the plans and contribute their ideas and designs - or get involved in many other ways. But now this has evolved into a full web platform for devloping the car in the community. You could register on the site now, and be viewing the full technical documents within minutes - and more importantly, contributing your own ideas.

Opportunities for You

The car industry is going to be rebuilt now, and it will be rebuilt by companies like these - some of them with an open source model - and perhaps companies like yours, making use of this open source community.

Just as the first car industry created many opportunities for entrepreneurs to build tyre companies, petrol station networks, in-car entertainment systems and more - the car industry 2.0 will offer similar opportunities for a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Look at the businesses and products that have built up around a closed system like the iPod - and imagine how that effect will be multiplied around an open product.

These cars will be electric - what opportunities are there for innovative charging points? What about better electric storage systems?

Is there a better business model for 'green' car ownership? What about a green car pool for appartment blocks? What about a green car hire company? Businesses all want to be seen to be green - is there a way to adapt this vehicle for the business market? Wouldn't they make better post-vans for teh royal mail than the diesel belchers they have now going very-innefficiently from house to house? Who is going to put together the fleet operation to supply contracts like that?

The opportunities are there. Are you the entrepreneur to take them?

If you're at all interested in being part of the Car Industry 2.0, then go and browse their development web portal to see how your company could become part of the network, and what ideas you could contribute.

To whet your appetite, and spark your imagination, here's a computer simulation of the their first car...