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TomGlaisyerPaper1EbensArgument 10 - 15 Oct 2008 - Main.TomGlaisyer
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Introduction | | | Anarchic production | |
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< | As I am most interested in functional goods I will focus on this aspect of Eben's argument which rests on the productivity of the free software movement following the adoption of the General Product Licence (GPL) - a creation that he argues is the greatest achievement of Richard Stallman. (Moglen, Anarchism Triumphant) Eben's claim that it is Richard Stallman's greatest achievement seems curious since the development of the GNU toolset and its subsequent marriage with the Linux project was no small or inconsequential undertaking yet it is entirely reasonable that without this legal vehicle the latter project may not have succeeded. However, suggesting that a relatively modest legal artifact enforced by elements of the state is critical to facilitating anarchic production since anarchy,as defined by The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics, is "the view that society can and should be organized without a coercive state." | >
> | As I am most interested in functional goods I will focus on the aspect of Eben's argument which rests on the productivity(?) of the free software movement following the adoption of the General Product Licence (GPL). The evidence that production under the auspices of the GPL and other types of open source licenses generates successful free and open source projects is ever more plentiful - Samba, MediaWiki? , Apache, FireFox? - the list goes on. Few are willing to defend the proprietary model, Microsoft does yet even they have opened a open source lab (http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/) Moreover, it is generally accepted that free and open source software is better than proprietary software on a number of dimensions - feature set, usability, reliability. All of this underpinned by the fact that if it doesn't quite work the technologist has the ability to fix it themselves, and no less importantly, the technology executive can be confident that they won't be left managing proprietary tools for which support is either no longer available or become suddenly 30% more expensive. | | | | |
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< | That said, the evidence of successful free and open source projects is ever more plentiful - Samba, MediaWiki? , Apache, FireFox? - the list goes on. Moreover, it is generally accepted that they are better than proprietary software on a number of dimensions - feature set, usability, reliability. All of this underpinned by the fact that if it doesn't quite work the technologist has the ability to fix it themselves. Moreover, and much more important to the technology executive, won't be left holding proprietary tools for which support is no longer available or 30% more expensive. | >
> | Considering Eben's claims more closely though there is a need to focus on the GPL for several reasons | | | | |
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< | Clearly, this mode of production is attractive to users as well as more successful at a technical level. Yet it isn't clear to me that anarchy full describes its mode of production. | >
> | (a) Eben suggests it is the greatest achievement of Richard Stallman (Moglen, Anarchism Triumphant). This claim is notable since the development of the GNU toolset and its subsequent marriage with the Linux project was no small or inconsequential success in itself. | | | | |
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< | - Define in as rich a way as possible by bringing in Stark and heterarchy, Benkler and peer production | >
> | (b) The GPL, and its derivatives, are what differentiates free software from merely open source software and though a number of projects don't use the license it is entirely reasonable that without this legal vehicle participants may not have participated in the projects in the way that they have.
That said, it is curious that a relatively modest legal artifact enforced through mechanisms of the state is said to be critical to facilitating anarchic production since anarchy, as defined by The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics, is "the view that society can and should be organized without a coercive state." for me this suggests that despite the attractiveness of this mode of production to users, and its success at a technical level it isn't clear to me that the term anarchic production is an adequate description and that it needs to be considered at a more micro level. It is occurring within loose organizational structures, that Stark might call heterarchical, and moreover it has thrived in conjunction with the firm though its success is because copyright privileges were assigned according to the GPL.
- Add Benkler and peer production | | | Proprietary production |
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