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reimagining Capitalism (part four: open-source Captialism)

Ok. So I’m going to start constructing some new ideas. Or at the very least relate what I’ve been thinking about lately. Especially with getting Red Cowboy Designs up and running at full speed. I’ve got a couple of different things I’m thinking about.

I made the analogy back in some comments about relating the current model of capitalism to something similar to a monopoly-like company such as Microsoft. And a better way of doing capitalism might be closer to open source operating systems like Linux.

I’m sorry to go all geek on you. But I got a subscription to WIRED and I’ve been reading The Starfish and The Spider.

I’ll do my best to explain what I mean by open-source without making it complicated.

Open-source at its simplest form is a way of sharing technology (more specifically “code” which is what programs and the web is built of). For example, when you go to the store and buy a computer, it comes with an operating system called Windows. Unless of course you’re smarter than the masses and bought a Mac. Windows is basically the thing that runs your computer. It’s your operating system and it does just that . . . operates your system. You then typically buy other programs for your computer like Microsoft Office. You pay $200+ for these type of programs.

Open-source doesn’t operate that way. With open-source, you could buy a shell of a computer. Then download and use for free an operating system called Linux. Which does the same things as Windows only it’s much cheaper, i.e. free. You can also download something that is almost identical to Microsoft Office for free.

It’s open-source. Meaning that really smart people got tired of paying money for operating systems and computer programs. So they decided that since they were so smart, they could for all intents and purposes re-create the same exact computer software that other companies were charging and arm and a leg for. This was completely legal because they weren’t copying companies like Microsoft. They weren’t stealing anything. Or selling anything. They weren’t concerned with PROFITS. So these “geeks” were basically building their own NON-COMMERCIAL products and giving them away for free.

A couple of side notes here (more on this later when I talk about The Starfish and The Spider more). When you aren’t concerned with profits you can give stuff away for free. Profits aren’t your driving force. Rather providing a quality and useful product is.

And when something is “NON-COMMERCIAL” in its creation and marketing, then there is no use for arbitrary things like money. The goal is not money. But rather making sure any who want to be a part of the community of open-source are free and able to do so.

You may ask how then does open-source work? How do the creators of such open-source products make it worth their time and energy?

Many do it simply because they’ve experience the freedom and experience of open-source and simply want to share it “free of charge” with whoever else wants it. In the words of the sage Brian McLaren, it’s kind of like a dance. One person hears the music and simply wants others to join in the fun of the dance.

There are also some who are donation based. Where you can donate your money for a product. But the idea is like that of a community. A web. Once you join the open-source community, the goal is not to make money off of you, but rather that you would become a part of the community. And one of the key ingredients of a healthy community is not that you would leach off people. That you would become dependent on them to take care of you. But rather that you would begin making contributions in your own little way based off of what you could provide. Kind of like the book of Acts. Each gave accordingly. And they gave according to need.

Think of it like a dinner party. Instead of one person (in capitalism’s case - the government with it’s welfare or the big corporations with their jobs) providing all of the food for the dinner, everyone brings a dish. Everyone brings some food. Some bring steaks. Which are really expensive and cost the person a lot. Others bring things much smaller like ice. Or lemonade. Things that don’t cost as much. But the point is not what you bring but how you bring it.

Wikipedia is an excellent example of this type of thinking. I use Wikipedia at least once a day. For those of you who live in the stone age, it’s an online encyclopedia run by a few nerds out of a small office. But the nerds don’t write the articles. The global community does. I’ve written an article for Wikipedia’s encyclopedia. There are over 1.5 million articles on the site. Referencing everything from String Theory to school bus stop laws to Eli Whitney. It’s the same thing as the Encyclopedia’s that we used to use as kids when doing a research project. Only now the articles aren’t just written by scientists and historians but by everyone who knows a little bit about something. They can contribute and write a few sentences, a few words, or an entire article.

It’s an open-source encyclopedia. Free for all to use. Open to everyone to contribute.

More to come later. But what do you think?

What role could open-source thinking play on our economy? On capitalism? Can you be an open-source capitalist? What would have to be different? What works with this analogy? What doesn’t work with analogy?

Tags: Open Source, Capitalism, Open-Source Capitalism, The Starfish and The Spider, WIRED, Linux, Microsoft, Non-Commercial, Wikipedia

© 2007 IAmJoshBrown.