Open Source Boundaries
July 3, 2015
Now here is an interesting metaphor to explain how open source is sustainable. On OpenSource.com, Bryan Behrenshausen posted the article, “Making Collaboration Sustainable” that references the famous scene from Tom Sawyer, where the title character is forced to whitewash a fence by his Aunt Polly. He does not want to do it, but is able to persuade his friends that whitewashing is fun and has them pay him for the privilege.
Jim Whitehurst refers to it as the “Tom Sawyer” model, where organizations treat communities as gullible chumps who will work without proper compensation. It is a type of crowdsourcing, where the organizations benefit from the communities’ resources to further their own goals. Whitehurst continues that this is not a sustainable approach to crowdsourcing. It could even backfire at some point.
He continues to saw open source requires a different mindset, one that has a commitment from its contributors and everyone is equal and must be treated/respected for their efforts.
“Treating internal and external communities as equals, really listening to and understanding their shared goals, and locating ways to genuinely enhance those goals—that’s the key to successfully open sourcing a project. Crowdsourcing takes what it can; it turns people and their ideas into a resource. Open sourcing reciprocates where it can; it channels people and their ideas into a productive community.”
The entire goal of open source is to work with a community that coalesces around shared beliefs and passions. Behrenshausen finishes with that an organization might find themselves totally changed by engaging with an open source community and it could be for the better. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It is, however, concerning for enterprise search solutions.
Whitney Grace, July 3, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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