Thu, 07 Aug 2003 18:52:44 GMT

Open Source Philosophies: 3 Takes.

tobias c. van Veen sent along:

The Architecture of Information: Open Source Software and Tactical Poststructuralist Anarchism

Raises some interesting parallels between the open source movement and various forms of poststructuralist thought. And then it stops, just as the questions get interesting. I assume (hope) there is more to come.

Brought to mind Manuel DeLanda's Open-Source A Movement in Search of a Philosophy, which raises a couple sharp questions, but never digs for any answers.

And finally, because not all anarchism is poststructuralist, its worth pointing to Eben Moglen's Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright. As best as I can tell from his writings and some of his lectures I've sat in on Moglen subscribes to a hyperlogical view of anarchism, if the whole world thinks like programmers, we'd be in utopia. Super intelligent but quite strange all the same.

Bottom line, open source + philosophy = more exploration needed

[Abstract Dynamics]

Not just exploration, some strong theorization. I'm working on my dissertation on more of a social theory/political economy take, both are forms of philosophical or theoretical study. However, most of what i have seen is an attempt to either dislocate open source from context or to constextualize it…