[cc-community] The iCommons Lab Report

Luis Villa luis.villa at gmail.com
Thu Nov 9 11:17:13 EST 2006


On 11/9/06, David Berry <d.berry at sussex.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Re: The iCommons Lab Report
>
> I had to laugh when I read the question of the Governance of an 'open and
> transparent' global community (page 1)- I presume they mean iCommons.
>
> Who should iCommons ask for advice about setting up this open structure of
> governance? Sociologists? Political theorists? Political scientists? Us?
> Nope. --- They ask Hackers who release a distribution of the Linux operating
> system called Ubuntu. What?!?  And they seem to be taking this advice
> seriously. I mean like, seriously.

Ubuntu has built a functional global community of peer producers which
includes thousands of participants and a reasonably functional
self-governance system. Frankly, CC has not done that, nor, to the
best of my knowledge, have any sociologists, political theorists, or
political scientists.*  Is it perfect? No. Is it well informed by over
a decade of experience in building functional communities which
combine the feedback of thousands of people with sometimes very
diverse goals ? Absolutely.

So I'd not be so quick to dismiss what they've done just because of
who they are; if anything, they have a lot more relevant applied
practice than the groups you'd have us look to.

Luis

* I say this as an Ubuntu user with a degree in political science with
a focus in political theory from one of the best political science
programs in the US, so I have some reasonable basis for these claims.



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