[p2p-research] Ted Leung on Design and Commons-based Production

[Kevin Carson]

On 8/29/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Another issue is not to see peer production processes 'in isolation'
>
> if we look at free software, we see it is the companies that pay attention
> to the 'last mile of design', and von Hippel says something similar in his
> book.  The open design communities themselves are less interested in  the
> 'commercial design' phase, because they don't need to sell, and have
> sufficient technical skills to use the programs/products in other ways.
>
> So my take is that we can have open design of the innards, while
> market-oriented companies can still compete on the outward designs ...

In any case, open-source doesn't require coordinated design by p2p
communities.  If anything, it facilites independent efforts by
individuals and small groups to build on others' platforms.  The
important thing is that the platform be in the public domain, with no
legal barriers to "letting a hundred flowers bloom" when it comes to
building modular accessories for it.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html