1. Lefis Workshop 2004 24 th – 25 th July Queens University, Belfast Open Source, Code and Architecture: It’s the Memes Stupid!

2. 2 Open Source Emerging Issues What is Open Source? Why is it here? Will it stick around? (Kimono Nikulainen)

3. 3 Open Source Perspectives Post-Capitalist Production A force for Good (Economist, 2004) Bill Gates? Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond Lawyer *

4. 4 Law as an Interpretive Constituency Open Source just does not fit Law: Rules and Norms Copyright and Patent Q: Can the Open Source Concept be applied to Content?Q: Can the Open Source Concept be applied to Content?

5. 5 Law as an Interpretive Constituency Copyright Model –Social Contract –Reciprocity –Incentive –Scarcity –Innovation and Creativity

6. 6 Law as an Interpretive Constituency Patent Model –Social Contract –Reciprocity –Incentive –Scarcity –Inventive Steps

7. 7 Beyond The Legal Paradigm Transforming Ideas Designing “Incentive Models” –A + B = C Copyright Narrative - “original” + “work” = property right Philosophical/Economic rationale?

8. 8 Beyond Beyond The Legal Paradigm Conundrum: Can the Open Source Concept be applied to Content? What Model? No Property Entitlement A + B = D (No Property Entitlement as such) Inversion: how does knowledge seep into organisational structures?Inversion: how does knowledge seep into organisational structures?

9. 9 Code Code: Lessig’s Insights What is Code really about? –Laws, Markets, Code and Norms –Technological Determinism –Model of Governance for Cyberspace

10. 10 Code: An Alternative View Metaphor –Ideology –Values –rules Technology –Network Society (M Castells) Evolution –Cultural Struggles

11. 11 What is Evolutionary Theory? “This preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection, and would be left either a fluctuating element, as perhaps we see in certain polymorphic species, or would ultimately become fixed, owing to the nature of the organism and the nature of the conditions.”

12. 12 Evolution characteristics Natural Selection –Interactivity –Hereditary –Variety –Scarce Resources Evolution = Process (Not Deity)

13. 13 Evolutionary Theory Contemporary Relevance –SARS –MRSA –The Human Genome Project –Ideas? Knowledge?

14. 14 Criticism of Evolutionary Theory The Internet does not have sex organs (B Latour, Aramis) –Darwin’s insights does not limit the characteristics to a biological system What is the relevance of ET to Open Source?

15. 15 Some Answers The information Society Cultural Evolution The Open Source movement is the result of –Interactivity (Internet) –Collaboration (Peer review) –Struggle (IPR and DRM – CODE) –Adaptation, replication and imitation

16. 16 Where is the Evidence? Emergence of Network Society (The information ecosystem) Cultural Networks display “traits” (see various OS licenses) Adaptation and propagation –Hackers, Technos, Creative Commons, Software Commons, Scholarly Commons, Subject Commons

17. 17 Afterthought? Darwin does not talk about Cultures Solution: Use the “gene” as an analogy –What if “gene-types” exist in cultures that that jump from brain to brain? –Richard Dawkins says we have “memes”

18. 18 What is a meme? ‘I think a new kind of replicator has recently emerged on this very planet. It is staring us in the face. It is still in its infancy, still drifting clumsily about in its primeval soup, but already it is achieving evolutionary change at a rate that leaves the old gene panting far behind.’ (The Selfish Gene)

19. 19 …contd ‘The new soup is the soup of human culture. We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. ‘Mimeme’ comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene’. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme.’ (The Selfish Gene)

20. 20 …contd A meme is: –An idea –A tune –A way of doing things –A Skill

21. 21 Examples The invention of the laser The idea leads to a patent Subsequent inventions of laser-related patents. Uniting memes with evolution theory: –Selection, replication and directed mutation –Variation, inheritance and differential vigour

22. 22 The Darwinian Arms Race 2000 – LINUX captures 27 % OS (Microsoft captures 41 %) GNU/Linux, Open Source and free software are going mainstream IBM, Borland and HP making available open source products IBM to invest $1bn on Linux development

23. 23 How are information flows seeking out new organisations? Viral licenses Cultural memes New organisations which are creating a “market” for public goods

24. 24 What does Evolutionary Theory Teach us? The boundary between production and consumption of ideas is maintained –“information wants to be free” IPRS blur the boundaries Institutional designs evolve –Previously market and property rights seen as cornerstone –Open Source creates a balance in the information ecosystem (this is Lessig’s thesis in Free Culture)

25. 25 The Difficult Questions Is there a limit to Memes? What is the role of IPR? Benchmarking, standard, niche markets Why are we asking these questions?

26. 26 The thought process of Plants and Animals Eat Survive Reproduce

27. 27 The Thought Process of Man What’s it All About? –The struggle for cultural dominance

28. 28 Joseph Savirimuthu E-Mail: jsaviri@liverpool.ac.uk http://savirimuthu.typepad.com