Reading notes

INFO 290 TODO

This space is currently used to collect and organize material that might appear on the syllabus.


 * Introductory Material Re The Commons, Free Software, and Open Source
 * Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, Science (Dec. 13, 1968).
 * The "population problem" is not one with a tractable, technical solution - one that doesn't require changes in values/morality.
 * Assumption: Decisions reached individually are the best for a society. Correct/Incorrect?
 * Tragedy of the commons: Every individual tries to maximize personal gain, in a society geared for commons (and hence the costs for the individual are a lot lesser)
 * Commons can only work in a low population density
 * Every commons system infringes liberty
 * The "freedom to breed" needs to be restricted
 * Interesting examples, nice introductory reading


 * Tim O'Reilly, Open Source Paradigm Shift.
 * The PC paradigm shift: IBM set the tone, but Microsoft,Intel,etc. reaped the benefits
 * The operating system goes beyond the one that runs on your own system: great Linux example to illustrate the OSS mindset
 * Three major trends:
 * Software commoditization:
 * The value lies in the services that software enables, find value "up the stack"
 * Spotting proprietary opportunities is important - BIND runs on donations, Domain names are a million-dollar business
 * Commoditization will increase software adoption
 * Network enabled collaboration:
 * Open Source Software began as people wanted to preserve'sharing, not enable it.
 * Several other examples of collaboration, network effect, co-creation
 * Customizability & Software as a Service
 * Software is a dynamic process, not an end product anymore
 * On demand services
 * New technologies debut as extensions
 * Design for enabling participation: The system architecture needs to be designed in a way that enables collaboration
 * Open Source goes beyond licenses and development practices, it's broader social and economic story.
 * Great paper, a little techie. Very interesting comments too


 * Yochai Benkler, Coase's Penguin, or, Linux and The Nature of the Firm, 112 Yale L.J. (2002-03).


 * Sam Williams, Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software, O'Reilly (Mar. 2002).
 * Chapter 1: Stallman's experience with fixing a Xerox printer.
 * An early disregard for proprietary software.
 * "Refusing another's request for source code, Stallman decided, was not only a betrayal of the scientific mission that had nurtured software development since the end of World War II, it was a violation of the Golden Rule, the baseline moral dictate to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. "
 * Chapter 1 is a good introductory reading, it explains his origins


 * Richard Stallman, GNU Manifesto.
 * The Stallman philosophy, embodied in the GNU project
 * Rebuttals for many of the arguments against free software
 * Will programmers starve? Discussion about how they would makes lesser money (Dont agree with that) but do different work.
 * "millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute!"
 * very interesting, and plausible, arguments in the rebuttals section.
 * Footnote 1 is intriguing. Readers could do with some help deciphering that.


 * Brian W. Carver, Share and Share Alike: Understanding and Enforcing Open Source and Free Software Licenses, 20 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 443 (2005) (First 30 pages or so provides background on free software and open source movements and their respective approaches and includes discussion of key features of GPL licensing and enforcement).


 * Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale Univ. Press (2006) (Chapter 3).
 * The Free Software movement is very different to the dominent "firms" and "markets" thought process
 * It points towards a decentralized, collaborative, non proprietary approach
 * Decentralization: actions of many agents effective despite having multiple people directing.
 * Free Software: licenses that make it difficult to let a single entity appropriate all the rights/ownership
 * Copyleft: Stallman's approach - reuse my code, but make it reusable to others as well
 * Linus Trovalds: a more realistic approach
 * Discussion on how Wikipedia works, and how mechanisms for control, conflict resolution and correction have evolved
 * Relevance: Amazon/Google/Slashdot's examples of peer production for reviews/ranking
 * Distribution, resource sharing
 * A co-operation gain example in wireless communications: repeater networks


 * David Bollier, Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, New Press (2009).
 * Article related to book
 * The OSS revolution has thrived in times not politically favoring free policy.
 * Great examples, breezy reading, excellent FIRST reading.


 * Steven Weber, The Success of Open Source Software, (2004), Chaps. 1-2.


 * Open Source as a Production Process
 * Steven Weber, The Success of Open Source Software, (2004), Chaps. 3-4.


 * Karl Fogel, Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project, (2006), Chaps. 3-4.
 * 3,4 and 5 are good readings about setting up an open source project.


 * Eric Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

Programmer's benefits and costs 4.2 makes interesting arguments, worthy of discussion (I don't agree with everything, though) 4.3 talks about individual incentives 4.4 goverance: Modularity, Keeping programmers interested, having a substantial "core" ready
 * Economics of Open Source
 * Steven Weber, The Success of Open Source Software, (2004), Chaps. 5-6.
 * Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole, The Simple Economics of Open Source.
 * OSS poor at: usability, interfaces, documentation since open source is usually driven by expert users wherease propreitary software is designed for novices
 * skewed distribution: fewer people make most of the contributions
 * e-mail id analysis suggests that most of the contributions to OSS come from non-"hubs"
 * Section 4 is important reading
 * 5: How propreitary software reacts to open source
 * Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Cooking pot markets: an economic model for the trade in free goods and services on the Internet, First Monday 3, 1998.
 * Discussion about how value, transactions, and economies are defined in the internet world
 * Something may be "free", yet extremely valuable
 * Online contributions - forums/code/etc. are worth something, and can be compared to things in the "real" world
 * The producer-consumer divide is blurring
 * Further discusses the argument about what one can "gain" from OSS
 * A cooking-pot model: diversity, multiple inputs, free software is NOT altruistic - there is always a payback


 * Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge Univ. Press (1990). [NOT ACTUAL READING: A summary of the reading]
 * The conclusions sections could be useful during lectures, nothing novel otherwise


 * Open Source Business Models
 * Steven Weber, The Success of Open Source Software, (2004), Chaps. 7-8.
 * Frederick P. Brooks Jr, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays On Software Engineering, Chapters 2 -7 (1977). [NOT ACTUAL READING: Summary Slides]
 * Division of labor for a software project
 * Popular book for software project management


 * The "Halloween Document" (Internal Microsoft Memo by Vinod Vallopillil, 1998) annotated by Erik Raymond.
 * Microsoft's internal memos about how to deal with Linux
 * The key quotes need to be read, for each of the documents
 * Another useful link: "Explains FUD briefly"
 * Robert Young And Wendy Goldman Rohm, Under The Radar: How Red Hat Changed The Software Business And Took Microsoft By Surprise, Chapters 4 and 5.
 * Chris Rasch, The Wall Street Performer Protocol: Using Software Completion Bonds to Fund Open Source Software Development, First Monday 6.
 * Extend the idea of bonds to OSS
 * Core idea: more incentive for non-programmers to be involved with OSS
 * Bond prices would be a good way of judging confidence in project execution
 * Last section: Describes the ideal mechanism for funding open source software

Is this section relevant?
 * User-created Value and Virtual Economies
 * Mia Garlick, Creative Commons presentation in Second Life, "Age of the Conducer" (April 2006).
 * Second life recognizes that users "create" some value for the game
 * One can use CC to license their CC avatar
 * More interesting: discussion on CC: can be used earlier
 * Second Life Terms of Service
 * Cory Ondrejka, Escaping the Gilded Cage: User Created Content and Building the Metaverse, 49 N.Y.L.S. L. Rev. 81 (2004).
 * The Metaverse context: people in virtual worlds
 * User creation is viewed as a threat by the provider (in the MMORPG scenario), but it isn't
 * Dan Hunter & F. Gregory Lastowka, The Laws of the Virtual Worlds, 92 Cal. L. Rev. 1 (2004).
 * Very detailed study of virtual worlds, and law implications for the same
 * Clickable Culture (focus on articles on Second Life)
 * developments in the SL world - not updated regularly anymore

Is this section relevant?
 * Social Production of Music and Other Digital Content
 * Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, (2006), Chap. 1.
 * Creative Commons Licenses
 * CC Mixter
 * Niva Elkin-Koren, Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit, in The Future of the Public Domain: Identifying the Commons in Information Law, (2006).
 * A critique of the CC
 * Conclusion makes most of the points
 * Zachary Katz, Pitfalls of Open Licensing: An Analysis of Creative Commons Licensing, 46 IDEA 391 (2006).


 * Regulability of Open Source/Open Source as a Global Phenomenon
 * Lawrence Lessig, The Limits in Open Code: Regulatory Standards & the Future of the Net, 14 Berk. Tech. L. J. 759 (1999).
 * Discussion about code ownership
 * Regulation is limited: excellent example - France and Netscape SSL
 * Stephen M. McJohn, The Paradoxes of Free Software, 9 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 25 (2000).

''Heavy readings. Perhaps condensible to make them easier to understand''
 * Conceptual Underpinnings of Free and Open Source Licenses: Property, Contract, or Something Else?
 * Michael Madison, Reconstructing the Software License, 35 Loy.-Chi. L.J. 275 (2003).
 * Glen O. Robinson, Personal Property Servitudes, 71 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1449 (2004).


 * Enforceability of Open Source Licenses
 * GNU General Public License (GPL)
 * David McGowan, Legal Implications of Open Source Software, Parts II, III-B, & III-C, 2001 U. Ill. L. Rev. 241 (2001).
 * Another heavy reading, need help deciphering this


 * Open Source and Competition in the software industry
 * Angelo Katsoras, Is the Promise (or Threat) of Open-Source Software for Real?, USA Monitor (Dec. 6, 2004).


 * Ronald Mann, The Commercialization of Open Source Software: Do Property Rights Still Matter?, 20 Harv. J. L. & Tech. (2006).
 * Section III: discussion about motivations for using open source + market correction that open source use can bring about
 * Section IV: Market evaluations: Which firms would be able to react best to the open source phenomenon? Product/Service? Small/Large?
 * IV is important, also discusses the open source licensing issue quite well
 * IBM Corp., Open Source and Linux
 * IBM Open Source strategy and initiatives
 * more of a proprietary write-up, Microsoft's recent OSS initiatives can also be talked about


 * Pamela Samuelson, IBM’s Pragmatic Embrace of Open Source, 49 Comm. ACM (forthcoming Oct. 2006).
 * ''better description, very similar to section IV of paper above 2 spots, good substitute.


 * Eben Moglen, Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright,THE COMMODIFICATION OF INFORMATION 107 (Niva Elkin-Koren & Neil Weinstock Netanel, eds. 2002)
 * similar to previous content about OSS effects and licensing, in a more entertaining style


 * Sean Silverthorne, Microsoft v. Open Source: Who Will Win?, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.
 * excellent article for class discussion... makes several points about the competition, many are quesitonable
 * eg: a monopoly is better for an improved product
 * eg 2: piracy is a an advantage for microsoft
 * eg 3: MS, linux dont lose, the others do.


 * Open Source Software: Microsoft at the Power Point, The Economist, Sept. 11, 2003. (REQUIRES REGISTRATION)
 * Ray Ozzie, The Internet Services Disruption, Oct. 28, 2005.


 * Additional resources
 * Siobhán O'Mahony, The Organizational Model for Open Source, HBSWK, 2003.
 * ''describes the role of non profit orgs, and how they are beneficial to open source


 * Adapting the Open Source Concept to Biotech Innovations
 * Sara Boettiger & Dan L. Burk, Open Source Patenting, 1 J. Biotech. L. 221 (2004).
 * How OSS approaches can be extended to solve patenting issues in biotech.
 * Arti Rai, Open and Collaborative Research: A New Model for Biomedicine, in Intellectual Property Rights In Frontier Industries, 131 Robert W. Hahn ed., AEI-Brookings Press (2005).
 * similar content, describes how the open source route solves problems beyond open access


 * Adapting the Open Source Concept to Other Digital Content: Creative Commons and Public Library of Science
 * Patrick O. Brown, Michael B. Eisen, Harold E. Varmus, Why PLoS Became a Publisher
 * Describes benefits of open access
 * interesting section on the costs of an open access journal - who should pay? how much?


 * Wikipedia
 * Wikipedia policies and guidelines
 * NPOV
 * The Wikipedia Community
 * The Wikipedia Power Structure
 * Doesn't say much about the actual setup.
 * Wikipedia Foundation Issues


 * none of the articles throw light on the organizational structure of Wikipedia, which would definitely be an interesting thing to know.


 * Adapting the Open Source Concept to Other Content: Reports on Other Experiments


 * Adapting the Open Source Concept to Principles of Democratic Governance
 * Charles Sabel, Work and Politics: The Division of Labor in Industry, Chapter 1.
 * Steven Weber, What if Open Source Principles of Governance Find Their Way into Communities of Knowledge and Practice in Politics?, OPEN SOURCES: VOICES FROM THE OPEN SOURCE REVOLUTION (2d Ed. Forthcoming 2005).


 * Open Access Journals and Publications


 * Peter Suber, Open Access Overview
 * Interesting points towards the end. OA is not free, and the correlation to peer review


 * Charles W. Bailey, Jr., What is Open Access?
 * Outlines 3 different views of Open Access


 * David J. Solomon, Strategies for Developing Sustainable Open Access Scholarly Journals, First Monday.
 * interesting reading in the strategies section, can be applied to open source communities in general
 * medical journals as a case study


 * Jessica Litman, The Economics of Open-Access Law Publishing, Lewis &Clark L. Rev. (2006).
 * an economic overview, with cost estimates for an open access journal''
 * legal journals as a case study''


 * Lewis & Clark Symposium: Open Access Publishing And The Future Of Legal Scholarship (2006).
 * Several articles addressing open access in the legal world, nothing unlike the previous ones though


 * Charlotte Tschider, Investigating the “Public” in the Public Library of Science: Gifting Economics in the Internet Community, First Monday.
 * ''an evaluation of PLoS vs. a closed journal

Others
 * Aaron Swarz et al., Who Writes Wikipedia? (Sep. 2006).
 * Several viewpoints about editing statistics - what's a good measure? Number of edits? characters?
 * Is the editing concentrated? Or is there a shift to the novice users


 * Julia Angwin and Geoffrey A. Fowler, Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages, Wall Street Journal (Nov. 27, 2009).
 * didnt have access.. one needs to be a WSJ subscriber


 * Jennifer Thom-Santelli, Dan R. Cosley, and Geri Gay, What's Mine is Mine: territoriality in collaborative authoring, Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (2009).
 * Discussion about ownership of articles in Wikipedia: under the 'Maintainer' tag
 * Control and defense are natural behaviors, that must be moderated


 * Evgeny Morozov, Is it the end of Wikipedia?, Boston Review (Nov./Dec. 2009).
 * detailed discussion of elements from Andrew lih's book
 * mp3 of ischool talk could also be useful
 * Also, several must-read comments


 * John D. Sutter, Wikipedia: No longer the Wild West? CNN (Aug. 26, 2009).
 * Comments on the Wikipedia move to exert control on articles via editors


 * Andrea Seabrook, Jimmy Wales On Wikipedia's New Editing Policy NPR (Aug. 26, 2009).
 * Issues surrounding wikipedia articles, interesting points by callers on the talk
 * a lot of uncertainty about the new editing system is visible


 * Shawn Pogatchnik, Irish student hoaxes world's media with fake quote Associated Press (May 12, 2009).
 * Wikipedia passes: editors spotted the fake quote, there was no attribution
 * Media fails: the media blindly picked up hoax content
 * reinforces the point about Wikipedia makes about always stating sources


 * Eric Goldman, Wikipedia Will Fail Within 5 Years Technology & Marketing Law Blog (Dec. 5, 2005).
 * also http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2006/12/wikipedia_will_1.htm
 * reasons why Wikipedia cannot exist the way it is presently
 * the author tracks changes to the Wikipedia policy and reviews them


 * Academic Research on Wikipedia, Wikipedia.


 * Bongwon Suh, Gregorio Convertino, Ed H. Chi, Peter Pirolli, The Singularity is Not Near: Slowing Growth of Wikipedia, Proc. of WikiSym 2009 (Oct. 2009).
 * stats that show the slowdown, and try to point towards reasons for the same.


 * Mark Graham, Wikipedia's known unknowns, The Guardian (Dec. 2, 2009).
 * Several regions still exist, which could drive the next Wikipedia wave

Potential Book Chapters or Excerpts

 * Tapscott, Wikinomics, TOC, Intro and Chapter One.
 * definitions of knowledge sharing & collaboration changing
 * not everyone subscribes to the view
 * Great introductory reading


 * Yochai Benkler, Wealth of Networks.


 * Strahilevitz, Lior, Wealth without Markets? Yale Law Journal, Vol. 116 (2007).
 * Highlights strengths and weaknesses of the book
 * Social production has several issues to beyond law.
 * 'The Merck example is great for class discussion'


 * Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody (webliography).
 * Web 2.0 effects on the way things are organized.


 * Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds, Excerpt.
 * Good examples about group decisions proving better than individual ones


 * Lawrence Lessig,
 * Code and other Laws of Cyberspace, v2.
 * The web can be regulated, and is increasingly getting more so
 * Argues that the net cannot be left alone, it needs the regulation


 * The Future of Ideas (full-text pdf).
 * The internet is enabling idea exchange, but corporations controlling the web are curbing them


 * Free Culture (full-text pdf).
 * Publisher's powers must not be so much that it inhibits others from using the creation
 * Organizations exert too much control to further commercial interests


 * John Willinsky, The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship, TOC, full-text pdf with registration.


 * Lih, The Wikipedia Revolution, TOC.


 * Meeker, The Open Source Alternative, Google Books Preview.


 * Wayner, Free for All.


 * Chris DiBona, Mark Stone, Danese Cooper, Open Sources 2.0.


 * Deek and McHugh, Open Source Technology and Policy, Google Books Preview.


 * Bitzer and Schroder, Economics of Open Source Software Development, Google Books Preview.


 * Wynants and Cornelis, How open is the future? (full-text pdf).
 * 'Covers a lot of material from the readings in the book. might be good to use as a text'


 * Feller et al, Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software (full-text pdf).

INFO 290 TODO