The widespread perception of open source is that it’s community work. Looking back at the first heyday of open source in the 90s, you picture these loosely organized, squabbling, collaborative efforts between a closely-knit group of nerds. Some special technology, notably Linux, emerged from that era as evidence that self-motivated teams of... See more

Linus Torvalds's style of development—release early and often, delegate everything you can, be open to the point of promiscuity—came as a surprise. No quiet, reverent cathedral-building here—rather, the Linux community seemed to resemble a great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches (aptly symbolized by the Linux archive sites, who'd... See more

Benkler’s key addition in “Coase’s Penguin” was a framework for understanding why and when groups of individuals motivated primarily by the cultural significance of their work can be more efficient than markets or firms in the allocation of creative effort. In other words, how the web creates an environment where massively valuable projects like... See more