The Open Source Debate

After reading Digital Maoism by Jaron Lanier, The Cultural, and the Bazaar by Eric Raymond, I found myself torn between Lanier’s view of open source as a contributor to collective identity and Raymond’s view of open source as an opportunity for enhancement.

I understand Lanier’s criticism of the bazaar ideology Raymond seems to favor. However, I do not believe open source is a horrible thing. As Raymond points out, open source utilizes the free labor of individuals to improve software we enjoy. Additionally it has the potential of ending the “predatory vender lock-in” we face with commercial enterprises such as Microsoft, who charge hundreds of dollars for program updates (i.e. windows 7 ability to support virtual hard disks and improved performance on multi-core processors) Open software attempts to break this commercial loop and provide everyone with the opportunity to get what may not have been available to them.

On the other hand the bazaar ideology has the potential as Lanier would say “lead to the loss of originality and individual intelligence.” The reason is because people would no longer feel the need to tap into their own creativity because they are so reliant on the creativity of others which results in the dumbing down individual intelligence in favor of the hive mind. But then again universities such as MIT, Tufts, and John Hopkins view open source as a way to advance knowledge and education for students, so can it really causes individual intelligence to die down. Granted it opens the door for the sharing of essays, projects, and exams which can cause people to disregard their own intelligence since they can copy information from somewhere else, which is similar to the argument Lanier was making about the way in which information is put into Wikipedia. But with the rise of new technology and the popularity of new digital media I find it hard for students to get away with it.

Ultimately, the use of open source is debatable for both pro and con, even as I write this blog post I am still unsure as to which side I am on.