| The recent diffusion of networked computing has allowed the development of new forms of digitally mediated association and cooperation. One of the results of this has been the communal production and distribution of free and freely modifiable software defined as Open Source.; Examining the process of Open Source software creation, I look at the micro and macro-interaction in virtual communities, which foster or threaten significant efforts of online cooperation. I consider the motivation for aggregation and socialization, leadership and power and the inevitable necessity of sanctioning and social order, and the way cooperative efforts are negotiated in the virtual community environment. I argue the necessity of a change of paradigm in thinking about the digital economy, and suggest the need to consider the flourishing field of voluntary, spontaneously generated grassroots organizations. These alternative forms of production are deeply rooted in cultures of cooperation and can be understood only with an attentive look at the social mechanisms of collective organization and meta-information production. I look at the micro-interaction and its technological structuration, the social significance of aggregation, the aspect of volunteer action and organization, and the larger economic and political context impacted by Open Source.; I focus on the emergence of Open Source as the template for virtual cooperation and argue that the development of communities of cooperation and information production both conflicts and converges with the current stage of development of the Information Economy. Open Sources exemplifies the relevance of non-face to face socio-economic networks, an emergent reality often discounted by scholarly literature. I aim to show that this model is so successful that traditional industries perceive it as threatening, while often attempting to mimic or co-opt the process for their own economic advantage. In other cases, traditional industries have taken legal action to prevent some models of cooperation from proliferating. I conclude by discussing alternatives, elaborated in the context of Open Source and their implication for the future of the capitalistic economy. |
