Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Calvin Powers <calvin AT cspowers.com>]

At 01:09 PM 4/25/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> on Wed, Apr 25, 2001 at 12:49:34PM -0400, Josep L. Guallar-Esteve wrote:
> > I just received this article. I found i interesting for all of us,
> > Information-related people.
>
> FWIW, many of the arguments used in the article are also found in Larry
> Lessig's _Code_, which I recommend to everyone here - it's a great and
> challenging read.
>
>  http://jaundicedeye.com/cgi-bin/lucre/0465039138

I would also recommend Eric S. Raymond's writings:
http://tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/

"Cathederal and The Bazaar" is Eric's classic text, but "Homesteading the 
Noosphere" is, I think, more directly relevant to the essay that was posted 
to the list. Personally, I think Eric's take on this stuff is a bit more 
down to earth.

As a big fan, supporter, and (_very_)minor participant in the Open Source 
movement, it amuses me to see so many neo-Marxists citing the Open Source 
movement as proof that capitalism is an outdated dinosaur and soon to be 
obsolete.

Don't get me wrong, I buy into the notion that the open source movement is 
a successful and viable gift-culture. But A) I don't believe that 
gift-cultures are incompatible with, or underimining of, a capitalist 
society and B) Just because the open source movement is successful and 
viable doesn't mean it's going to _dominate_ or _replace_ the 
corporate-based software industry.

Indeed, many corporations (except perhaps Microsoft), including my employer 
(IBM), are doing a pretty darn good job both supporting the Open Source 
movement and (dare I say it) capitalizing on the Open Source movement to 
enhance share-holder value. Check out http://www.ibm.com/linux and 
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/ for some examples.



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Calvin Powers                                             current events
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