Facebook shares info: theirs not yours!
Jinfo Blog

By Jan Knight

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Earlier this month Facebook announced something most technology companies would not have the confidence to do. They announced the Open Compute Project, an initiative allowing the design and technology used for Facebook’s US data centre to be seen and shared by anyone. They are in fact freely giving away instructions on how to build this kind of more efficient system. Why, we may ask?

Their reasons include encouraging collaboration in the tech industry, a group which tends to look favourably on information sharing, and helping to advance best practices in the building of data centres. They also cite the creation of an environment of competition among vendors, a move that may eventually result in cheaper equipment for everyone.

Some see this move as a way to leverage the expertise of engineers worldwide who may be able to help enhance data centre design and technology. In this new effort, a form of crowdsourcing, Facebook distinguishes itself from Google and Amazon, companies who have traditionally kept their own technology private. Obviously, Google has a much larger pool of internal staffers than Facebook does to help refine their own technology so this new initiative is a way of competing without hiring new staff.

Analysts say that by giving away intellectual property, Facebook can also foster new internet start-ups. Forrester Research analyst, Richard Fichera, cites another payoff where their move may create a community of suppliers making products with the exact specifications Facebook already uses.

The Huffington Post's article calls this a "big deal" because it “constitutes a general shift in terms of how we look at technology as a competitive advantage”. It’s clear that Facebook doesn’t consider its technology its differentiation but instead sees its users as its competitive advantage, along with software and brand.

A glance at their own Facebook page for the Open Compute Project Server shows that people are already commenting, mostly positively, on this new Open Source thinking. As one user says “Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Nothing more to say”.

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