Readings

The readings for Tuesday, March 21 are:

1. Homesteading the Noosphere

Writings

In this essay, ESR discusses the culture and customs of the open source community:

Cultures are adaptive machines. The open-source culture is a response to an identifiable set of drives and pressures. As usual, the culture's adaptation to its circumstances manifests both as conscious ideology and as implicit, unconscious or semi-conscious knowledge. And, as is not uncommon, the unconscious adaptations are partly at odds with the conscious ideology.

1. Summarize ESR's analysis of the open source culture and customs. What drives people to participate in open source? What benefit do they derive in giving away their code? From your experience, do you agree with his analysis? Explain.

2. What do you make of ESR's list of taboos:

   • There is strong social pressure against forking projects.

   • Distributing changes to a project without the cooperation of the moderators is frowned upon.

   • Removing a person's name from a project history, credits, or maintainer list is absolutely not done without the person's explicit consent.

   Considering open source history, do these ring true? Are these good taboos or norms for the culture to have or do they violate the spirit of open source? Explain.

3. This semester we've discussed the idea of what a hacker is and whether or not you consider yourself one. Considering ESR's description of the gift economy and the role of reputation, do you find these mechanisms and motivations appealing? Do you view participation in open source as a means of "ego satisfaction" or something more? What would entice you or motivate you to participate?