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Open Source as Social Principle
Felix Stalder
Novi Sad, July 30, [email protected]
http://felix.openflows.org
"Openness"
● openness is not absence of structure, or "free-for-all".
● Karl Popper: Open Society and its Enemies (1945)
openness has three aspects:ideological: falsificationpolitical: procedure to remove governmentlegal: rule of law, bill of rights, constitution
"Openness"
● open source:– ideological: all code is buggy, no software is
perfect– political: system of bug reports, incorporation of
improvements independent of origin, "benevolent dictator", forking
– legal: license defines rightsGeneral Public License (GPL)
"Openness"
● open source:– GPL: right to duplicate
right to modifyright to duplicate modificationobligation pass on these rights
– availability of source code
"Openness"
● open source:– movement of programmers: freedom of
producers are codified in the GPL– better software, higher rate of innovation– users profit as well: wider availability of high
quality software, no artificial scarcity– for users, no difference between open source
and freeware– freeware: proprietary software without a price,
free as in beer.
"Openness"
● open source vs freeware– difference is central– technically: slow and unstable– socially: program remains opaque
Technology as Politics
● technologies are never just technical, but full of social, political, cultural choices– technology is neither good nor bad nor neutral
(Marshall McLuhan)– often hidden– as social life becomes more technologically
mediated, these choices matter more– choices are materialized on the level of code– code as architecture (Lawrence Lessig)– technology is society made durable (Bruno Latour)
Technology as Politics
● open source makes choices visible– governments are interested: security– MS allows certain govs to read Windows code
● open source makes choices debatable– minix: read but don't write
● open source puts the choices into the hands of producers and users– anyone can write functionality– anyone can contract functionality
Technology as Politics
● democratization of software development and application
● software as a public good, like air, water etc.
Open Source beyond Software
● success of open source is an example● open content movement:
Open Source beyond Software
● open access movement:– scientific journals / data
Open Source beyond Software
● open source intelligence
Open Source beyond Software
● common thread: different conception of how to manage IP
Battle over IP
● information can be end product and raw material
● distributors vs. creative producers; control vs access
● attempts to expand control:– legislation (DMCA, EU Copyright Directive)– technology: Digital Restriction Management
Systems (DRM) and "trusted computing"– "trusted systems presume that the consumer is
dishonest" Mark Stefik
Battle over IP
● attempts to expand access:– technology: Internet, cheap, accessible, global,
end-to-end– non-rivalrous exchanges– concept: commons
Commons
● commons: resource used and maintained by a community according to its standards, no individual owners.
● public domain: copyright expired, no ownership
● public information: owned by the state (in theory open to everyone)
Politics of the Commons
● commons depend on context: infrastructure– open source:
● free many-to-many communication● open standards to ensure compatibility and
transferability● commons content
– policies● protection of free communication channels● open standards vs closed standards● development of appropriate licensing schemes,
restriction of copyright claim (length and scope)
Economics of the Commons
● mixed economies:– no payment (volunteers)– indirect payment (students, professors)– direct payment (programmers working in
companies that use but do not sell software)– donation (of hardware, server space etc.)– commercial and community versions (zope)– community financing (koro5hin, open access
journals)– "Posser method" (scientific journals)
Economics of the Commons
● trend towards institutionalization, professionalization of inner core– foundations to handle money (FSF, Apache,
Mozilla, Blender, etc)– companies funding projects for strategic
purposes (Sun: OpenOffice, AOL: Mozilla)– industry associations to directly employ open
source leaders (Torvalds works for Open Source Development Lab)
– new (non-profit) ventures with seed money from large foundations
The Culture of the Commons
● there is no information, only transformation (Bruno Latour)
● from original to version● facilitator vs genius (Torvalds & Stallman)● measure: improvement● how to apply to non-functional works?
Society of the Commons
● sustainability● merciless meritocracy? ● Darwinism: libertarianism● socialist utopia: oekonux● service economy● new role for the public sector
Open Source as Social Principle
● open source is more than software● organizational, economic, political and
conceptual system● radical alternative to the status quo● basis of the information society: status of
knowledge
Open Source as Social Principle
● two competing vision: intellectual property:– centralized control– distributors keep producers and users apart– information is a scarce, expensive product– innovation is controlled by the center
Open Source as Social Principle
● two competing vision: commons:– decentralized management– distinction between creators and users is fluid– information is nominally free, practically a service– capacity to innovate is distributed
● who will win?– none, but how they lose will be important
