How is open source work ( as an example of community produsage different from commercial production?

Open source software is now taking over the proprietary marketplace - and has no plans on leaving!

As defined in opensource.org, "Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in." Open source provides access to the source code, which is the instructions that tell a computer to do certain things. Historically, proprietary software was free and anyone could contribute and share the code, although now " the source code is locked away. Only a select few may see it and change it" (Cathedral model" Raymond, 1999).

Open source software was first introduced by Richard Stallman in 1984 when he founded the Free Software Foundation, and launched the GNU project, aiming to produce a free operating system which would be compatible with the proprietary Unix system. Along with designing new rules for the licensing of this software, Stallman announced that anyone has permission to run the software, copy it, modify it and distribute the versions.

"By contrast, commercial, proprietary software is produced by a selected group of developers with a much more narrow range of expertise. Their primary motivation is their salary" (Barr, 2007). The most common example of proprietary software is Microsoft Windows, in where guidelines are set and contributions are only made by the developers. This process can be seen as a tedious one as the ability to explore multiple solutions and errors is limited.

For example, an employee at Microsoft Windows gets no incentives to makes technology compatible with its open source competitor. On the contrary, any open source alternative to an existing proprietary software standard has to be compatible with the existing standard, and it has to be possible to use this opensource technology in a network constituted of proprietary technologies. "This is typically the case for Linux and most examples of open-source technologies: as for Linux, it is even now possible to emulate Windows on a Linux machine. As a consequence, it is easier to adopt locally a compatible open-source technology rather than a non compatible proprietary technology, for a similar level of local adoption" (Open Source vs. Proprietary Software, 2007).

Whether Open Source or Proprietary there are both advantages and disadvantages with both software. However, the basics of open source are determined by the openness of sources and contributions of all people, and the basics of proprietary is the reliability of developers and their skills.

I believe, as an important consumer of today, that both these software are an essential part of our society today.


References

http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/opensource.htm

http://www.opensource.org/

http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/dalle2.pdf

What are the differences between commercial production and community produsage?

What are the differences between commercial production and community produsage?

"It builds on a simple, yet fundamental proposition: the proposition that to describe the creative, collaborative, and ad hoc engagement with content for which user-led spaces such as the Wikipedia act as examples, the term production is no longer accurate" (Produsage.org, 2008).

From production to produsage - The simple process that is changing the world, and allowing users to turn into producers. One might ask how this can be achieved?

Produsage is the activity in where were all in the postion to act as both users and producers of content, allowing users the ability to interact with each other, access and retrieve content, and respond to it by making their own contributions. The difference between commercial production and community produsage is simply in my view the difference between theory and practice. Producers are those who make factual and theoritical information, where produsages are those users who create their own content, and challenge these ideas of theory with their own. Though the disadvantages with produsages is that mistaken, false information can be avilable and can mislead audiences, and can potentially introduce errors - deliberate or accidental. Although they do provide some advantages including faster more frequent updates, and greater infolvement of the community.

"The produsage process itself is fundamentally built on the affordances of the technosocial framework of the networked environment, then, and here especially on the harnessing of user communities that is made possible by their networking through many-to-many communications media" (Produsage.org, 2008).

How is Web 2.0 different from Web 1.0?

How is Web 2.0 different from Web 1.0?

Web 1.0 was revolved more around the publishing of websites by advertisers, with no assistance from consumers. It is seen as a "static" thing, like a billboard or a magazine and are only changed by whoever publishes it.

Whereas, "Web 2.0 is a revolutionary view of the Internet and the social and business uses of advanced technologies rather than the technical aspects of those technologies. The core concept of Web 2.0 is: Use Internet as a platform and leverage network effect to harness the collective intelligence in a cost-effective manner" (Sizlopedia, 2007). Web2.0 is seen as a "user-generated" or "user-shaped" device, which allows consumers to publish the content they want on a website. Famous example of "Web2.0 applications" already in use and much talke about are Flickr for photographs, Wikipedia for encyclopedia articles, Facebook for maintaining friendships, You Tube for seeing young people mugging to videocamers and Answers.com for combining elements of these with its own user-generated Q&A section. It helps to increase participation of users like blogs, e-commerce website, torrents etc, where every user gets a change to publish in a website one way or the other. Downloading programs such as Limewire, where illegal downloading of songs, TV shows, and movies allow consumers to build a centralised song database, and thus growing a network.

In the mid-1990s, the Web began with Web1.0 as a repository of information and static content. Within a couple years, a huge amount of content was dynamic, returning custom results to users. By the turn of the century, the Web became much more interactiveallowing users to play, stop, rewind and fast forward through audio and video content. Web 2.0 makes Web-based applications feel like and run as smoothly as local applications

"Sometimes called the "New Internet," Web 2.0 is not a specific technology; rather, it refers to two major paradigm shifts. The one most often touted is "user-generated content," which relates more to individuals. The second, which is equally significant, but more related to business, is "thin client computing" (Tech Web Network)

How do online communities organise themselves?

"Online communities are a group of people who come together online to participate, debate and share information"(Dibben, 2007). The purpose of online communities is to serve information about the community and how to participate, hosting of the tools of communication and conferencing, and providing ways to organise relevant information contributed by the community and history of the community.

"Online communities are formed to communicate, learn and share, provide support structure for mentoring, provide records and archives, online training or professional development, access to expertise, and to extend communication between networks" (Dibben, 2007).

Online communities involve some critical factors in order to be successful and effective. Firstly, focus on topics is important to the community and essential in creating a online community. Following on, finding a well respected community memeber to coordinate the community, and making sure each member has the encouragement to do their best. Finally, by using all the key thoughts that each member provides is essential in creating a successful and effective online community. It is also important to make sure each community member has the certain skills that are required, and they are focused on the same values and interests.


"Most people initially join online communities believing that they will receive some benefit. For an online community to generate useful content and an ongoing sense of community the proactive participation of a critical mass of members is required" (Dibben, 2007). Being an effective contributing member of an online community usually means having a combination of skills, an understanding of the culture of the community, solving logistical problems so that regular access is convenient, and ultimately an attitude of wanting to participate and contribute.