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Re: [ox-en] "open source model permits elitism"



Hi Michel and all!

I hope it's not too hard to recall your line of thought here. It's
difficult to keep this with text-above-full-quote-below quoting.

2 months (69 days) ago Michael Bouwens wrote:
  I agree with Stefan's comments about failures. Even the rate of
failed  entreprises is extremely high, something of the order of 50%
in the  first year already ...

  Stefan, you seem to agree with the assessment that successfull
open  source projects emulate the mgt. of the corporations they're
competing  with.

Nope. Neither do I think they emulate the management of corporations
nor do I think Free Software projects compete with them. IMHO both is
read into Free Software projects by market adepts.

Are you really sure about this? Could you
specify? Aren't  voluntary hierarchies and peer governance modes
quite distinctive from  corporate governance models?

Absolutely.

IMHO the point is that on the one hand it's a necessity to build and
maintain structure in any non-trivial project. IMHO this is an
"eternal" necessity which exists beyond a specific type of society.
Such structure contradicts freedom in the sense of no boundaries and
furthers freedom in the sense of the possibility to rely and build on
something.

On the other hand *how* this necessary structure is built and
maintained depends massively on the type of society you are looking
at. In feudalism there were forms and in capitalism there are
different forms. To me one of the main aspects in capitalism is that a
lot is governed through alienated means - especially money.

Indeed the distinction you mentioned is in the how-aspect - not in the
whether-aspect. In (Doubly) Free Software projects you have no
alienated means to force people to do or stop something. However, you
have the usual non-alienated means such as asking or convincing them
or by giving good example. To me this distinction around alienation is
one of the main points why it is interesting to look at Free Software
if you have emancipation in mind.


						Mit Freien Grüßen

						Stefan

--
Please note this message is written on an offline laptop
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