Re: economic efficiency of free software

Tim O'Reilly writes:
 > This is a big part of my current stump speech, "The Open Source  
 > Paradigm Shift".  I've been saying for years that we need to get beyond  
 > the exclusive focus on licensing as the litmus test for open source,  
 > and look at all of the other aspects, in particular, the way that  
 > systems can be designed to create participation.
 > 
 > There are a set of overlapping factors in the success of open source  
 > software.  Unless we tease them apart, we aren't going to learn from  
 > other, related successes.

Or ... there aren't, in which case the licensing is a critical
factor.  I don't say that to discourage anybody from looking for
cut-points, but instead to lay out the other possibility -- that open
source benefits are inseparable from open source costs.

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