I bet you thought I’d stopped reading? Or given up? Nah. It gets chewy, for sure, but it feels like every chew is worth it. I’m reading this book at the same time as I’ve been working on the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative. I’m realizing that all of the justifications for why I am so into open source and free software is right here in this book! So here’s the summary for Chapter 3.
Chapter 3 is a discussion on Peer production – it talks about how it is that people have come together to collaboratively create software and content – basically, knowledge production. A salient quote:
… the networked environment makes possible a new modality of organizing production: radically decentralized, collaborative, and nonproprietary; based on sharing resources and outputs among widely distributed, loosely connected individuals who cooperate with each other without relying on either market signals or managerial commands. This is what I call “commons-based peer production.”
He talks about three examples which have become classic – free/open source software, SETI@Home, and Wikipedia. He spends a fair bit of time talking about the Wikipedia model, and how, basically, amazing it is.
The important point is that Wikipedia requires not only mechanical cooperation among people, but a commitment to a particular style of writing and describing concepts that is far from intuitive or natural to people.
He then spends some time making clear how the new networked environment makes peer distribution possible. Napster and and it’s follow-ons are a prime example:
What is truly unique about peer-to-peer networks as a signal of what is to come is the fact that with ridiculously low financial investment, a few teenagers and twenty-something-year-olds were able to write software and protocols that allowed tens of millions of computer users around the world to cooperate in producing the most efficient and robust file storage and retrieval system in the world.
He then talks about something that I find really interesting, and hadn’t fully understood until I read it: why the radio spectrum was regulated in the first place, and why now, regulation is basically moot. It’s really worth a read.
In the next chapter, he will talk about the economics of social production, and the motivations behind peer content creation.
Technorati Tags: media, opensource, economics, peer2peer
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Just checking in to say how much I enjoy your blog. I found it through Beth’s Blog.
Peer production is amazing and wonderful. At Omidyar Network there’s been an effort to write proposals for 9 $5,000 grants. Watching the collaboration of people across time zones developing these proposals has really been inspiring to me.
But peer production also scares people silly. I’m not sure I quite understand the fear, but it’s something to pay attention to. The other side of the coin is the presumption that all of the production of the social sphere will be benign.
The middle way isn’t splitting the difference. Still thinking about a middle way suggests where not always faced with binary choices. Perhaps a bit of the “Zen” you offer here in your valuable blog.
Hi John,
I’m glad you enjoy the blog! And yes, I think there is a middle way – there are times when peer production just rocks, and times when it makes things much harder.
I think a lot of the fear of peer production is around control. It’s hard to control such an organic process, and control is something a lot of people really like.
Thanks for the comments!