Models of FOSS Collaboration
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* Anonymous users can edit Wikipedia entries.
* Anonymous users can edit Wikipedia entries.
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* Neutral point-of-view and good faith guide user's contributions.
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* Traditional Encyclopedia:  Hierarchy of publisher, editors, authors.
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* Wikipedia:  Anyone can write, edit, publish.
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* '''Neutral point-of-view''' and '''good faith''' guide user's contributions.
* Jimmy Wales, as a kind of '''constitutional monarch''', has final say.
* Jimmy Wales, as a kind of '''constitutional monarch''', has final say.
* Bureaucrats, stewards, developers, administrators have '''responsibilities''' (rather than rights) and help manage the site.
* Bureaucrats, stewards, developers, administrators have '''responsibilities''' (rather than rights) and help manage the site.

Revision as of 13:10, 12 April 2010

In these notes we exam different models of collaboration in open source projects.

We are particularly interested in how the content that is shared -- be it encyclopedia knowledge (Wikipedia) or source code (Linux) -- is controlled.

There are many different models possible, ranging from very democratic models (Wikipedia) to what are called benevolent dictatorships (Linux) and many forms of hybrid models in between (Drupal, Sahana).

Wikipedia: Direct Democracy

  • Anonymous users can edit Wikipedia entries.
  • Traditional Encyclopedia: Hierarchy of publisher, editors, authors.
  • Wikipedia: Anyone can write, edit, publish.
  • Neutral point-of-view and good faith guide user's contributions.
  • Jimmy Wales, as a kind of constitutional monarch, has final say.
  • Bureaucrats, stewards, developers, administrators have responsibilities (rather than rights) and help manage the site.
  • Wales and the Wikipedia board of directors have authority to mediate editorial disputes, remove abusive and uncooperative users.
  • See: Joseph Reagle, In Good Faith (Ph.D. dissertation)

Linux: Benevolent Dictatorship

  • Only trusted users can contribute code directly to the Linux codebase.
  • Traditional Software Development: a) Plan, b) Analyze, c) Design, d) Implement.
  • FOSS Development: a) Code; b) Review; c) Pre-commit test; d) Development release; e) Parallel debugging; f) Production release.
  • Originally, only Linus Torvald, the project's founder, had authority to commit code to the main Linux repository.
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