Comments on: Why Open Source Software is Social Media

By: Open Source builds communities, not software « Superpatterns

Open Source builds communities, not software « Superpatterns — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 07:34:42 +0000

[...] if I say that he’s the best software analyst on the planet. D’oh!) reckons that Open Source Software is Social Media. I agree wholeheartedly – this is exactly what we’re experiencing in OpenSSO. We would [...]

By: James Governor

James Governor — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:10:15 +0000

you are right. bear in mind i wrote the piece a while back. that said, clearly GPL is only one license. many others are not reciprocal…

By: Mike Pittaro

Mike Pittaro — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:53:17 +0000

Steven Weber’s ‘The Success of Open Source’ covers much of this from the perspective of a political scientist rather than a technologist. Written in a pre-social media age, it’s surprising how much of the community and social aspects parallel social media.

I think any discussion of parallels between social media and FLOSS must include notions of property rights. Free software philosophy centers on giving rights to users, while many (all?) current social media platforms actually claim exclusive rights to the generated activity and contributions.

That is a fundamental difference – giving code to a GPL licensed project is not the same as giving a picture to Facebook.

By: What is social media? | The Online Portfolio of Jeffery K. Guin

What is social media? | The Online Portfolio of Jeffery K. Guin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:55:06 +0000

[...] technical terms, the social media phenomenon is a fusion of cross-platform technology, open-source web code and the interactive presentation of audio, photos, videos and text. But at its heart, it’s [...]

By: Preservation Today » Blog Archive » What is social media?

Preservation Today » Blog Archive » What is social media? — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:37:34 +0000

By: Brit Butler

Brit Butler — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:17:47 +0000

I realize I’m a bit late to this discussion but oh well. This has been one of the more enjoyable things I’ve read today and on your blog, James. Thinking about points 1 and 5 reminded me of a quote from Steven Weber’s “The Success of Open Source” page 151. Perhaps it will contribute to the dialog here:
“The problem is, computing power is simply not the key resource in this ecosystem…Meaning and value depend on human mind space and the commitment of time and energy by very smart people to a creative enterprise.”

Isn’t that the key to 5? Social Media seems to be exactly the sort of thing that would be spoken about in terms of attention economics. Substitute producers and consumers for publishers and spectators though and you’re back to an economic framework of scarcity in which case the cost falls on the producers in the form of mind space and the consumers get free\libre software. That’s the discontinuity. Social media is using attention economics terms…and I think if you had to force open source users into those categories then the developers are the publishers and the users are the spectators. Just a thought.

By: jgovernor

jgovernor — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:57:11 +0000

Pat and Deb – thanks very much for taking the time to blog on the notion.

By: Pat Patterson

Pat Patterson — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:31:12 +0000

Not sure if my trackback worked, so here's a manual one: By Pat Patterson : Superpatterns: Open Source builds communities, not software on 31 July at 10:30 AM PDT James Governor of Redmonk (I might jeopardize our ranking in the next magic quadrant if I say that he's the best software analyst on the planet. D'oh!) reckons that Open Source Software is Social Media. I agree wholeheartedly [...]

By: Deb’s Blog » Blog Archive » Warning: Social networking can be addictive

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 07:40:32 +0000

[...] in these types of social networking sites as well. James Governor has some thoughts on how open source is a social media. I definitely agree that open source is very social, although not in the traditional definition of [...]

By: Mike Taylor

Mike Taylor — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:53:43 +0000

I would put forth the point that Open Source Software is primarily about the social aspects of creation. A great project is great because of *both* the code behind the project and the people within it. It’s the sharing (or lack) of knowledge and information in the community of the project that draws in or repeals people to/from the project.

Rarely do I hear of a project being great purely because of the code, it’s always because of the people.