24 January 2003

Anarchy, Open Source/Content and Value Systems Gerrry Gleason has written a thought-provoking short paper discussing the implications of transfering the principles inscribed in Open source/Free Software programming to other domains of economic and production activity. His analysis is centred on the organisational structure governing contributions from globally dispersed developers who volunteer their labours to the community fostered projects. Here it goes: Anarchy, Open Source/Content and Value Systems by Gerry Gleason [1,294 words] In trying to think about the success factors for Open Source (OS) projects, and evaluate their character and structure, as well as thinking about extending this idea to other areas, I had the insight that the essential character of OS project organization is anarchy. As a political/intellectual movement, Anarchy as probably the most pure form of Libertarianism. Forget any associations you may have with the idea of creating anarchy in communities or societies by throwing bombs and other disruptive acts, since these are both factually incorrect, and have nothing to do with what Anarchy advocates. The correct association is of anarchy with "a state of nature", the Garden of Eden, if you will. Humans, being highly social animals with highly advanced systems for communication of symbolic knowledge, have the ability to impose rules of all sorts on this original state. In principle, there is nothing wrong with this, but history shows many examples where "the rules" become highly oppressive. In tribal societies, the social unit is a small group where social "norms" can operate effectively, and it can be argued that the "norms" are essential for the survival of the tribe, but human development did not stop there. With the development of agriculture, the stage was set for creating hierarchical structures, monetary systems and large scale warfare (i.e. beyond inter-tribal conflicts for territory).  READ MORE 9:49:12 AMSay it loud  []