Earlier this year, Hunting With Pixels caught up with Shay David from Kaltura on the New York leg of our epic interviewing spree. Kaltura are a leading open-source video platform, helping business and educational clients deliver top quality video solutions. In part five of this interview series, Shay talks about open source as a social phenomenon among participants, and how this impacts upon businesses that employ it. Within a traditional software company, such as Microsoft, most employees view their work as a job, a business interest. Shay compares this to an open source company such as Linux, and suggests that people who participate in creating open products are far more motivated by their passion than fiscal reward. By asking the question “What do people do in the absence of money”, we can see a clear distinction between these two business models. When a business is able to align financial interests with the passion of its participants, we can see the truly stand-out open source successes begin to emerge. Shay provides the example of Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade products, which has been financially successful, is responsible for a great product, and has built up a vibrant online community. The same is true for Twitter: a simple idea, an easy business model, and some smart and passionate people at the helm. This is not to say that volunteers and passionate people are a new phenomenon. However, with the increasing interconnectedness offered by the internet, and the expanded reach it offers to small businesses, we are seeing more and more of this new wave, companies that are reaching new heights through the combination of passionate people and great business practices. http://www.vimeo.com/26091393
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