- Called Open Source Compass, the new open source analysis tool provides insights into 15 emergent technology domains
- It can help software engineers in identifying potential platforms for prototyping, experimentation and scaled innovation.
Deloitte has launched a first-of-its-kind public data visualization tool, called Open Source Compass (OSC), which is intended to help C-suite leaders, product managers and software engineers understand the trajectory of open source development and emerging technologies.
Deloitte collaborated with University of Toulouse Chair of Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI) and co-founder of Datawheel, César Hidalgo to design and developed the tool.
The tool enables users to search technology domains, projects, programming languages and locations of interest, explore emerging trends, run comparisons, and share and download data.
“Open source software has been around since the early days of the internet and has incited a completely new kind of collaboration and productivity — especially in the realm of emerging technology,” said Bill Briggs, chief technology officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
“Deloitte’s Open Source Compass can help provide insights that allow organizations to be more deliberate in their approach to innovation, while connecting to a pool of bourgeoning talent,” he added.
Free and open to the public
Open Source Compass will provide insights into 15 emergent technology domains, including cyber security, virtual/augmented reality, serverless computing and machine learning, to name a few.
The site will offer a view into systemic trends on how the domains are evolving. The open source platform will also explore geographic trends based on project development, authors and knowledge sharing across cities and countries. It will also track how certain programming languages are being used and how fast they are growing. Free and open to the public, the site will enable users to query technology domains of interest, run their own comparisons and share or download data.
The benefits of using Open Source Compass
OSC analyzes data from the largest open source development platform which brings together over 36 million developers from around the world. OSC visualizes the scale and reach of emerging technology domains — over 100 million repositories/projects — in areas including blockchain, machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Some of the key benefits of Deloitte’s new open source analysis tool include:
- Exploring which specific open source projects are growing or stagnating in domains like machine learning.
- Identifying potential platforms for prototyping, experimentation and scaled innovation.
- Scouting for tech talent in specific technology domains and locations.
- Detecting and assessing technology risks.
- Understanding what programming languages are gaining or losing ground to inform training and recruitment
According to Ragu Gurumurthy, global chief innovation officer for Deloitte Consulting LLP, Open Source Compass can address different organizational needs for different types of users based on their priorities.
He explained, “A CTO could explore the latest project developments in machine learning to help drive experimentation, while a learning and development leader can find the most popular programming language for robotics that could then be taught as a new skill in an internal course offering.”
Datawheel is an award-winning company specialized in the creation of data visualization solutions. “Making sense of large streams of data is one of the most pressing challenges of our day,” said Hidalgo.
“In Open Source Compass, we used our latest technologies to create a platform that turns opaque and difficult to understand streams of data into simple and easy to understand visualizations,” he commented.
