Randy asked me to deliniate some of the features I would like to see in my syndication feeds/services.  I have expanded and clarified this in an essay:

Synthetic RSS Feeds [John Robb's Weblog]

4:01:21 AM    

Did Clark and Dean intend to set up open source software companies inside their campaigns?  The core group of developers aren't doing this for free.  They get paid a salary.  They produce product.  In fact, the core campaign technical teams are about the same size as the salaried teams of almost all of the commercial developers in this space.

However, that being said, I think it is indicative of these new guerrilla movements that they create their own social software.  The reasons for this include the following:

1. Many new guerrilla social movements don't have the financing to buy software during early formation.  They go to open source due to the low cost.
2. Going open source allows these growing movements to tap into the "spirit" of "free software developers."
3. Open source allows a higher degree of customization and integration than most commercial products allow.  A software package that is customized for a movement provides a sense of ownership and defines the organization as an unique entity.
4. Open source allows free distribution of the code as the organization scales.
5. As new social software tools emerge (and they are quickly), these innovations can be quickly integrated into the core software of the movement.

[John Robb's Weblog]

4:01:03 AM