http://www.wired.com/print/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online By Kevin Kelly 05.22.09 The notion of a third way is echoed by Yochai Benkler, author of The Wealth of Networks, who has probably thought more than anyone else about the politics of networks. "I see the emergence of social production and peer production as an alternative to both state-based and market-based closed, proprietary systems," he says, noting that these activities "can enhance creativity, productivity, and freedom." The new OS is neither the classic communism of centralized planning without private property nor the undiluted chaos of a free market. Instead, it is an emerging design space in which decentralized public coordination can solve problems and create things that neither pure communism nor pure capitalism can. \ Now we're trying the same trick with collaborative social technology, applying digital socialism to a growing list of wishes—and occasionally to problems that the free market couldn't solve—to see if it works. So far, the results have been startling. At nearly every turn, the power of sharing, cooperation, collaboration, openness, free pricing, and transparency has proven to be more practical than we capitalists thought possible. Each time we try it, we find that the power of the new socialism is bigger than we imagined. sharing The online masses have an incredible willingness to share. cooperation When individuals work together toward a large-scale goal, it produces results that emerge at the group level. collaboration finely tuned communal tools generate high-quality products from the coordinated work of thousands or tens of thousands of members. In contrast to casual cooperation, collaboration on large, complex projects tends to bring the participants only indirect benefits, since each member of the group interacts with only a small part of the end product. collectivism The aim of a collective, however, is to engineer a system where self-directed peers take responsibility for critical processes and where difficult decisions, such as sorting out priorities, are decided by all participants. Read More http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism?currentPage=all#ixzz17P31VIgr *********************** Open Season Why an industry of cutthroat competition is suddenly deciding good karma is great business. By Andrew Leonard http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.05/open_source_pr.html By spring of 1999, open-source mania has transfixed the computing industry. Gold rush fever, never hard to unleash in today's overheated high tech economy, is on the rise again. IBM has endorsed open-source Web-server software called Apache and has committed to providing support for Linux. Intel is investing in Red Hat, Corel has a Linux version of WordPerfect, and scores of other tech stalwarts are announcing some level of support for open-source systems. Hardly a day goes by without another company declaring that it is now "going open source." Imagine the open-source development environment as a vast, open-to-all-comers laboratory stocked with every imaginable tool, including an infinitely large library and seamless communication conduits to talented colleagues all over the world. There is no entrance fee to this laboratory, no need to pay exorbitant license charges simply to use a particular tool, and no limit to the possibilities. All you need to do is find a likely niche and take advantage of the resources of the laboratory to leverage your creativity and talent - or to rev up the throttle on your already established business. Apache works. It's the Web-server program of choice for more than half of all publicly accessible Web servers - a statistic that is all the more amazing because Web servers are a market niche laser-targeted by both Microsoft and Netscape. The Apache project has proven that a rock-solid, commercial-quality software program can be created collectively by taking advantage of the flexibility of the open-source development model. The emergence of the open-source Apache Web server program as the market leader in April 1996, Netscape's decision in early 1998 to release the source code to the Navigator Web browser, and, all along, the steadily rising profile of Linux have sent shock waves rippling through the commercial-software marketplace. The gift economy suddenly appears to be stronger than ever. Who will make the ultimate decision on what software patch is incorporated into the all-important Linux kernel? And how exactly will the open-source "community" enforce the "give back what you create" open-source licensing terms? It is far from clear that itch-scratching will lead to user-friendly interfaces that can match the sophistication The combination of good software and messianic faith - the Internet's fabled "gift economy" - that spawned the technocultural phenomenon of free software in the '80s has today morphed into both a business strategy and a way of life. VA Research, which sells computers preloaded with Linux - and has received a dose of venture capital from Sequoia Capital, the same company that steered Yahoo! to its current $36 billion market valuation - is present, as is Cygnus Software, an open-source services and support company that reports raking in revenue of $20 million in 1998.