Re: Episodes of Collective Invenstion
This is a comment to Peter B. Meyer’s paper Episodes of Collective Invention.
I find the discussion regarding incentives for sharing knowledge and inventions the most interesting one. If you think that you have a really good idea, why on earth would you want to make it publicly available?The paper shows that there are many possible reasons; uncertainty and fame being two.
I’d say that in general, people will only use open source (or any other approach) if that benefits them somehow - short-term or long-term. Meyer claims that open source is only useful and beneficial within uncertain fields, i.e. fields that have an uncertain future or evolution. That is when you need collective creation and development, as well as diversity and multitude.
I am fascinated by the roles of fame and respect. The Media Lab has a long history helpfulness and open source; send out an email with a question and you’ll most likely receive at least a couple of answers. I wonder what drives people to help others succeed? Apart from the fact that direct reciprocity may benefit these people (students exchange ideas and solutions with each other), it may actually also be that they strive for recognition and admiration. They are working their way up in the hierarchy of knowledge and wisdom.