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Silicon Valley legend and SpikeSource founder expounds positively on open source technologies.

The ex-Marimba founder, Kim Polese, spoke of open source as a wedge, one that will drive open economies worldwide.

"We are now entering Globalization 3.0, where individuals and small groups become empowered, causing disruptive behavior," Ms. Polese said.

The first two globalization periods happened when the New World began yielding resources to the Old World after Columbus's exploration; the other period began with the start of international trade, Ms. Polese said, citing author Thomas Friedman.

She detailed this behavior as economies moving to a bottom-up approach, instead of being driven from the top down by a few powerful industries. The behavior is being echoed in the software industry, where the dominance of a small handful of companies has been challenged by the open source movement.

Cracks in the foundation will be driven open by Linux and other open source solutions. "Everything is going open source and it is creating disruptions for dominant vendors," Ms. Polese said.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.