The Ignorance of Crowds

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Ignorance of Crowds
Well I'm not sure I agree with this but it's a message that I think will resonate with many readers. In a nutshell, the argument is that while open source programming methodology works well with small, predefined tasks (such as bug-checking) it is not as appropriate for innovative projects - which generally develop from the mind of a 'lone wizard' - or for major development work - which generally requires coordination, teams and hierarchies. Open source projects themselves recognize this, argues the author, from Linux - which is top-down from Linus Torvalds - to Wikipedia - which is slowly building a contact management hierarchy. More...