Thursday, March 28, 2013
Here Comes Everybody
Open-source work is a phenomenon. Whether it be Linux, Wikipedia, or a small project that fails, open-source work shows the human desire to contribute. An innate part of being human is love and care for the welfare of others. Although, admittedly, this attribute doesn't always shine in human beings, this idea of love for the community and things created by the it drive the development of amazing tools like Linux and Wikipedia. Shirky speaks of failure for free in regards to open-source work; I would add to this idea success for free. Whether a project succeeds or fails really is trivial; what matters is the united endeavor to contribute and create. This deep-seeded desire to create and share brings to mind the implementation of the Law of Consecration, or even a Socialist-run government. Unfortunately, we have seen that with too much freedom and too little governing, groups of people become destructive and unfair. The remarkable characteristic of open-source work is that destructive work is nearly immediately eradicated and repelled. The sense of camaraderie and well-being in a community of contributors is nearly impossible to restrain or destroy, and thus astounding works such as Linux and Wikipedia are created.
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I agree that open-source is a wonderful way to go about developing a project. I do wonder, though, about all of the projects that have started out this way and failed. Just like there are thousands of failing businesses and relatively few successful ones, is it the same way with open-source projects?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of failing for free and succeeding for free. Not only as an individual but as a huge group.
ReplyDeleteI believe the creator of open source recognized early that bad projects and implementations cannot be avoided. But they also should have recognized that rewarding good ones and there being enough good ones will fulfill the work of this phenomenon.
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