Open Source Methods Useful Way Beyond Software

Tom Steinberg writes "Former head of policy at the British Prime Minister's office, Geoff Mulgan, has co-authored a paper on uses of Open Source methods in arenas far beyond the normal Sourceforge universe. The paper is jointly written with Tom Steinberg, head of UK civic hacking fraternity mySociety and explores the use of open source methods to improve academic peer review, drafting of legislation and even media regulation."

In a democracy/republic

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't the law already open source? Sure, there are maintainers, but it's possible to submit changes and get them approved.

Deconstruction of Falling Source

[Tackhead]

> explores the use of open source methods to improve academic peer review, drafting of legislation and even media regulation."

Because we all know that professors, lawyers, and, um, more lawyers, are all interested in getting ideas from outside sources.

With the exception of math/science/engineering academicians, none of the above have any real interest in improving the peer review process.

Delenn: "John Sheridan was a good and kind and decent man."

Academician: "You came all this way just to say that?"
Delenn: "You came just as far to say less."
Academician: "But this is extraordinary. There's so much more we'd like to ask you. So much more we'd like to know."
Delenn: "You do not wish to know anything. You wish only to speak. That which you know, you ignore because it is inconvenient. That which you do not know, you invent."

- Babylon 5, The Deconstruction of Falling Stars [visi.com]

Open Source will have come of age...

[Anonymous Coward]

...when reports on Open Source are no longer in pdf format.

Re:Open source and human nature

[huhwhatduck]

I agree that the capitalist model works well in this instance. The 20th century was, after all, seen as a fight between three different, irreconcilable politics. Nazism, Communism, and Democracy (usually associated with capitalism). Nazism was obviously a definite no. Communism, while some think it is gone, and others joke about the so-called "Creative Communists," the overarching idea of cooperation still exists. Yet we see with the innovation that the internet has inspired that Democracy, capitalism, and this sense of "free culture" which is cooperative, all work together. This is what is creating our new world order, and it is imperative that we continue to push open source software, transparency, democracy, cooperation, and individualism for us to see a pleasant future.

Re:In a democracy/republic

[Donny Smith]

>Sure, there are maintainers, but it's possible to submit changes and get them approved.

True, but they have a proprietary CVS repository so the community can't submit their patches using non-proprietary tools.

It'd be nice if someone did a "shadow CVS" of government decisions, laws, etc. vs what should have been done and then critique would be very easy to document in real time with snapshots of this shadow CVS tree :-)

In all seriousness, closed source software, patents, etc. is nothing compared to the wasteful and corupt ways of the government.

Re:Duh

[lionheart1327]

I know I'll probably get modded down for this because of the stigma of the evil "C" word, but here we go.

Open source, and the volunteer way in which it is done, is basically the utopian communism that the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, etc. were striving to get to, but fucked up.

Real communism is not people being forced to be "equal". It is the unselfish sharing of everything, and volunteering your time and effort for the greater good.

Now, people can't seem to share their physical goods, but on the Internet it seems that some people are willing to share virtual goods. When it doesn't really hurt you to give your neighbor a hand, it seems that people are willing to do it.

Of course, there are those like the RIAA and the MPAA, that are completely against it, but most Slashdotters seem to be for it.

So maybe Bill Gates is right, and Linux is communist?

Well, if you take away the prejudice against the "C" word caused by decades of propoganda, maybe thats actually a Good Thing?

Open Source as a political system

[sellin'papes]

The principles of open source are extremely similar to those of the political system of anarchy.

Open source principles applied to our current political system (democracy, republic) would translate to something like Participatory or Direct democracy. A system where everyone can contribute.

open source is the best of both worlds

[Anonymous Coward]

socialism and democracy.

Re:Open source and human nature

[h4rr4r]

I am also an american. I was making reference to the fact that most Americans begin to foam at the mouth at the mention of the word communism.

I do not believe that many communists actually read slashdot. If you do not believe me look at all the "commies sux0r hardc0re" remarks one of these threads generates.

I would also agree that Marx would now think
that europe is closer to his ideal than Soviet Russia ever was. Soviet Russia represented simple communism and not marxism at all.

Also the USA has most definatly fallen to the tyranny of the wealthy!

I also believe we need a revolution not what we supposedly had with the revolutionary war(which was not a revolution just a war for independence).

I am an anarchocommunist but would settle for marxism if we could only have that.

PS french fries are cool but not the one at mcdonalds they suck and so does that company.

Now mods mark me offtopic

Re:Duh

[asoko]

I'd argue that the GPL is communist, while the BSD (or MIT) license is libertarian.

GPL says "No way in hell you can ever make a profit from this" while BSD license says "Do whatever you want with it." One assures code will always be free (as in beer), other assures the people who use it will always have freedom (as in speech).

Which one you use depends on the result you want. I'm trying not to inject my bias into this, though I think I've already failed.

Re:Open source and human nature

[21mhz]

The country I'd guess might make it to a supportable, non-militaristic, non-dictatorship, Socialist style state first would be India...

What happened to those Scandinavian countries?

C is for cookie, and conciousness raising

[allegr0]

'C' is also for "conciousness raising" a several decade old tradition which has led to feminst theory and practice. It's worked for naming problems like sexual harassment, marital rape, racism, sexism, ismism, and never ceases to come up with new problems. Sometimes it leads to solutions, sometimes it's more difficult - but the point is open sourcing code is a lot like sitting around having tea and chocolate and talking about your problems. It really is. Once people start working together problems/bugs become manageable and real improvements become possible.

Bring on the sunshine and rainbows.