RE: [OPE] Linux and the Nature of the Firm.

Hi Alejandro:
 
OK, I'll take a small bite.
 
There are inherent limits to the size of the peer groups working in
this area so long as capitalism persists. The limit is given by the
lack of leisure time and the necessity for the overwhelming amount of
people - including professionals - to work for capital or the state
for a wage. This area also assumes a certain level of expertise
and the peer groups would then be composed of a skilled and
technically knowledgeable elite. In other words, most working
people don't have the (non-working, 'free') time or, at present,
the skills, to participate meaningfully in the creation and reproduction
of this 'commons based peer production'. This is not to say that
it won't grow in importance over time, but that there are limits
to that growth cased by existing social relations of production.
 
Certainly, this is a concern for capitalist firms in the computer
software market but how exactly will this trend affect firms
in other markets?
 
In solidarity, Jerry
 
 
 
Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm
Yochai Benkler

http://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.html
 
**I suggest that we are seeing is the broad and deep emergence of a new, third mode of production in the digitally networked environment. I call this mode "commons-based peer-production," to distinguish it from the property- and contract-based models of firms and markets. Its central characteristic is that groups of individuals successfully collaborate on large-scale projects following a diverse cluster of motivational drives and social signals, rather than either market prices or managerial commands.** (Yochai Benkler).

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Received on Fri Nov 21 09:58:27 2008