Countless volunteers engaged in a great effort, Wikipedia, are testing whether that effort, or any effort so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. The process and product provides a laboratory into the open source process and into the systems we call (for want of more precise analysis) "self-organizing." How will it react to vandals, well-meaning but uniformed contributors, and disputes over process, doctrine and "truth"? What intellectual property issues will arise, and how will they be resolved? What sort of governance mechanism will evolve to manage the Wikipedia phenomenon? Time will tell.
For those not familiar with Wikipedia's back-room process, this Wired article provides some illumination. Wired 13.03: The Book Stops Here
(read more)
See also, Reading Weber, "Success of Open Source" (Unintended Consequences 1/5/05)
And: Free, Open Access Science Publishing Debut (Id. 10/15/03)
And: Powell's Studies of Network Forms of Business Organization (Id. 9/9/03)
Posted by dougsimpson at March 3, 2005 09:43 AM | TrackBack