The Simple Economics of Open Source

[Tres Seaver]

In article <slrn8g26tu.p7o.neelk at brick.cswv.com>,
Neel Krishnaswami <neelk at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>One of the interesting things about this thread is that it has given
>me a bit of insight into what economics looks like to people who
>haven't internalized its assumptions. I'm afraid that I'm tainted
>enough that it no longer looks like the dismal science to me. :)
>
>Seriously, the rejection of altruism as a possible motive strikes me
>as a very reasonable decision. Altruism is generally not sufficient
>motive in other aspects of life -- and since there's no particular
>reason that programmers in particular are more likely to be altruistic
>than the rest of the population, positing that hackers have greater
>virtue is at best a dubious proposition. Consider, for example, how
>much better government would be if all the voters studied the issues
>and took care to be informed voters, and that basically no one makes
>the effort. Most people don't even bother digging up evidence to
>support their prejudices, let alone try to come to a careful decision.
>And searching the Census and BLS websites is *easier* than hacking on
>the Python core.

"That dog won't hunt!"  Your claim that "basically no one makes the
effort" is easily refuted:  consider the League of Women Voters,
and the guides they put out before each election -- that effort is
well-organized, and involves coordinated, non-partisan effort on the
scale of tens of thousands of volunteers (much like a large Open Source
project).  The League's explicit motive is to educate themselves and
the population at large on the issues and candidates;  that at least
some of the effort here is altruistic is obvious to anyone who hasn't
"internalized [economics'] assumptions."

Altruism-is-a-shibboleth'ly,

Tres.
-- 
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Tres Seaver        tseaver at digicool.com     http://www.zope.org
Digital Creations