Re: [ox-en] Felix Stalder: Six Limitations to the Current Open Source Development Methodology
- From: "Per I. Mathisen" <per leftist.net>
- Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 08:28:08 +0000 (GMT)
On Sat, 16 Aug 2003, geert lovink wrote:
Six Limitations to the Current Open Source Development Methodology
The "Open Source Approach" to develop informational goods has been
spectacularly successful, particularly in the area for which it was
developed, software.
...
However, particularly outside the software domain, the Open Source projects
remain relatively marginal. Why?
...
1) Producers are not sellers
...
2) Limited capital investment
...
3) High number of potential contributors
...
4) Modularized Production
...
5) Producers Are Users
...
6) No Liability
I'd add
7) Developed by multiple authors
For some areas where open source has been attempted to be applied, most
notably audio and visual artwork, it is rare that multiple authors
collaborate on a work. I am not aware of any tools for these areas that
encourage collaboration in the way that cvs and diff do for software, and
furthermore there is little culture of sharing 'sources' that allow
identical reproduction of the artwork from scratch.
In part this is of course because software requires multiple authors
because it is such a vast amount of work, while for audio/visual artworks
this is much harder, and it has been common to idealize the individual
genius who works alone as well as the 'final product' as a work of
finished art and perfection not needing any further changes.
The community culture in the various sectors should not be underestimated.
The contribution of Richard Stallman was not just the bunch of tools and a
license, but also an important precedent. There seems to be no similar
community culture within the audio/visual arts to draw inspiration from,
although this could quickly change.
- Per
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/