Hudl Visit

This is a blog post about a visit of Rob Hrusa(@robhrusa), a software developer from Hudl. Hudl is a video analysis / editing tool for aethlets and coaches. This is a digital version of the playbooks for sports teams back in the time.

During the visit, Rob not only gave a presentation that talks about Hudl and himself, but also the meaning of FOSS from both the developer and business perspectives.

OSS / FOSS / FLOSS
There is a difference between Free Libre and Open Sourced software, most of these issues comes from licenses. Libre allows everyone to use it but does not documentary mention anything when it gets to the source code distribution. On the other hand, open source means that the source code is open for both the developers and users.

FOSS on Business
It might sounds a little contradictory when we talk about FOSS and business together. However, it is essential to meet them together since FOSS is ultimately a product and business essentially needs to make money. During Rob's presentation, he listed out both reasons of why business would and would not join open sourced software.

For example, business would use open sourced software because they save costs, contains less bugs and is robust throughout the time. FOSS also helps business to avoid licensing problems - which ultimately also saves money for the business.

On the other hand, there're also many reasons of why business would not use open software. FOSS are really hard to regulate, they are not invented locally and they could possibly have security issues. Additionally, one of the big reasons would be that the business don't want to lose their competitive advantage. However, Rob countered the reason by saying that not all of the code has to be open sourced. It is smart and useful to keep a little code for yourself and keep the reusability of the code.

Finally, Rob talks about his general opinion towards the FOSS. He describes the developers as the catalyst of software. It is great to be a piece of the community that solves problems and improves project together. Remember that perfect is the enemy of innovation.