[p2p-research] the issue with forking

[Alex Rollin]

Sounds interesting.  An analysis of 'fork-ability' gets at the heart
of asymmetries in the capability of 'the governed.'


Alex
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.- Socrates



On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> the following seems an important issue for us,
>
> Phoebe/George, could you eventually explore this and fish for a deeper text
> by Nathaniel?
>
> Jussi will most like have the email contact,
>
> Michel
>
>
> http://www.networkpolitics.org/sites/default/files/netpol10v2%20abstracts.pdf
>
> *
>
> Nathaniel Tkacz: The Politics of Forking Paths
> *
>
> Open projects are defined by their forkability. So central is this capacity
> (to
>
> fork), software and other content projects cannot lay claim to the beloved
>
> notion of openness without it. While forking is variously celebrated or
>
> discouraged depending on a whole series of factors, all agree that the
> *potential*
>
> to fork is vital for what might be called the political legitimacy of open
>
> projects. That is, such projects might be full of conflicts, have
> domineering
>
> participants, too many or not enough rules, trolls, vandals, sock puppets
> and
>
> numerous other schemers and nasties, and yet in the last instance each
>
> participant must see the overall organisation of the project as acceptable
> and
>
> therefore legitimate. If this was not so, members are free to take the
> software
>
> or content from the existing project and continue in a new direction and
> with
>
> new governance.
>
> Rather than accept this widely held position, this presentation offers a
> critical
>
> reading of forking. I begin by dispelling the ideas that anyone can fork
> and
>
> that all – if any - projects are forkable. Using examples from the history
> of
>
> Wikipedia, I then argue that forking offers a window to the many
> asymmetries
>
> that characterise collaborative, P2P networks and the open projects created
> on
>
> them.
>
>
> --
> Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Think
> thank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>
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