[CAnet - news] Open Source - the Ignorance of Crowds

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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[There have been several good articles and discussion on some lists about
the value of open source programming especially related to some of its
inherent limitations. I agree with most critics about the challenges of open
source with respect to large software projects. But to my mind the debate is
becoming increasingly irrelevant.  The problem is not about the pros and
cons of open source - but about large monolith programming projects.  Web
services, Web 2.0, etc is slowly eliminating the need for such architectural
approaches to solving large complex problems. Instead programmers and
computer scientists are recognizing that a lot of this work can be
incorporated into stand alone web services linked across the network.  The
modules can be developed independently by small teams of open source
developers, where the same module can be re-used by many different
applications.  The value no longer remains resident in the software but how
you mash up these services together to create new innovative solutions.
Thanks to Frank Coluccio and Andrew Odlyzko for these pointers -- BSA]


  The Ignorance of Crowds
  by Nicholas G. Carr
  strategy+business
  Issue 47 | Summer 2007

The open source model can play an important role in innovation, but know
its limitations. Ten years ago, on May 22, 1997, a little-known software
programmer from Pennsylvania named Eric Raymond presented a paper at a
technology conference in Wurzburg, Germany. Titled The Cathedral and the
Bazaar the paper caused an immediate stir, and its renown has only grown in
the years since. It is now widely considered one of the seminal documents in
the history of the software industry.

  Continued at: http://www.strategy-business.com/press/freearticle/07204



Open Source Software Development as a Special Type of Academic Research

  http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_10/bezroukov


A Second Look at the Cathedral and Bazaar

  http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_12/bezroukov

  --


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