"'FreeCiv' and its Discontents -- Policy Lessons from Open Source Games: A Case Study".

At Politech, an essay by Solveig Singleton, "'FreeCiv' and its Discontents -- Policy Lessons from Open Source Games: A Case Study," considers the open source movement with respect to the development of computer games.

The essay is worth a read for its attempt to take the practical example of computer games and consider its implications for policymaking and the open source movement. OS development, according to Singleton, has not taken off in the gaming industry precisely because the kind of processes required for developing games do not lend themselves to an OS model.

Singleton argues that this means government should not promote open source models. In particular, he writes that there should be no requirement that software produced with government funding be OS, and further that government software procurement policies should not mandate a preference between open and proprietary models.

I am not convinced by Singleton's conclusions. But I do think he makes some useful points and, more importantly, demonstrates the need to understand information policy within the context of particular social activities through which people produce, distribute, and consume information.

[commons-blog]

9:44:22 PM    

Friendster Quickly Gathering Foes. The intentions of Friendster's founders and its community members are apparently at odds, so many Friendster friends are moving over to other social networks, such as Tribe.net. By Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News]

9:14:23 PM    

Bloogz - the Blogs Search Engine http://www.bloogz.com/
Try out searches both here and in Daypop, http://www.daypop.com/, which searches blogs, news and RSS feeds. Each seems to have some unique coverage.

[Neat New Stuff]

8:55:22 PM