It Seems To Me

Thoughts and Rants on Technology, Business and Politics

I have become fascinated of late by the millions of people who spend a significant amount of time each week in blogging, writing, coding, recording, and all manner of publishing for little or no financial remuneration. On a recent episode of The Podcast Brothers Tim and Emile interviewed Doug Kaye of IT Conversations. Doug said that he was experimenting with an open source production model in which volunteers help with the acquisition, assembly, production and publication of content. At this point it struck home to me that the open source movement has moved beyond the great software developers who have built Linux and Firefox.

Consider these other great "open source" movements:

• Wikipedia offers 500,000 articles in English — compared with Britannica's 80,000 and Encarta's 4,500 — fashioned by more than 16,000 contributors. Tack on the editions in 75 other languages, including Esperanto and Kurdish, and the total Wikipedia article count tops 1.3 million. Behind the scenes there is a group of about 200 people who are in constant communication. They discuss standards, policies, sharing information about what is going on and play the role of an informal editorial body.
• iPodder.org recently passed 5,000 podcasts actively tracked in the directory. Many of these podcasts, such as Adam Curry's Daily Source Code, or the Richard Vobes Show are 30 - 40 minute productions presented five days per week. Creating a podcast is a non-trivial activity. It takes time, money, and effort to prepare, record, produce and publish each of these shows. Although Adam may have an ulterior motive to help promote his burgeoning company, most other podcasters are fuelled by some other motivation.
• over 10 million people have posted reviews on Amazon.cam. Thousands upon thousands of these reviews are detailed and well written. Such writing take time and effort — for no apparent financial reward.
• And of course there are the millions of blogs that are created by amateurs for no reward other than the satisfaction of having a presence on the Internet.

What amazes me is that the millions of people involved in these ventures have the motivation and the inclination to invest their time to do so. We are in the midst of an Open Source generation in which people are giving of themselves and adding value to our everyday lives in millions of small ways.

As I was growing up and entering the workforce I got the message that if you worked hard you would get ahead. Those who worked the hardest would climb the farthest on the corporate ladder. Your progress would be the source of meaning and satisfaction in your life. People worked long hours with the expectation that their careers would move ahead.

In the last few years the source of meaning appears to have changed. It seems to me that people have become wise to the limited space at the top of the corporate ladder and have redirected their interests and their time outside of work. The Open source movement allows people to contribute to ever increasing connected world in whatever way they can. Whether it is adding entries for Wikipedia, adding functionality to software, or editing audio content for IT Conversations, there is a creative outlet for everyone online. And I believe that the world is a better place for it.