Comments on: Nicholas Carr on opensource

By: jd long

jd long — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:54:00 +0000

plagues=plagued

too bad I only have a spell checker and not a rant checker.

By: jd long

jd long — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:52:24 +0000

I find it interesting that one of Carr’s key points is that Open Source needs good aggregation (or central management) in order to work properly. That is also one of the key points of Surowiecki’s Wisdom of Crowds. Surowiecki iterates over and over how important it is to have an aggregation method that maintains the value of the crowd without biasing the end product toward the will of the moderator or people doing the aggregation.

In short, the need for good aggregation or integration of the crowd does not mean that the crowd model is broken. I believe that aggregation issues are going to become increasingly important. Not just in IT and Open Source but also in Risk Management and Finance.

On the Wikipedia comments by Carr: So the measure of an online encyclopedia is the length of articles that he deems important vs. those he deems unimportant? WTF? All users of Wikipedia, or any online resource, should understand the advantages vs. limitations of the resource. These advantages and limitations are hardly captured by the length of the Homer article vs. the Flintstones. I want a bumper sticker that says “Wikipedia: It’s one resource out of many. Deal with it.”

I think most of Carr’s analysis of Wikipedia is plagues with the cognitive bias of Focusing Effect (prediction bias occurring when people place too much importance on one aspect of an event (or resource); causes error in accurately predicting the utility of a future outcome.) I knew those biases you posted would come in handy often!

-JD

By: Ric

Ric — Wed, 30 May 2007 02:06:43 +0000

I think if you see innovation not so much as a novel idea, but as a successful implementation or execution of an idea, then “opensource” is in a good position to be ‘innovative’, because the execution is a) more likely to happen, and b) more likely to succeed

By: JP

JP — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:05:16 +0000

Krish, I have not been able to get to your comment. Maybe my blackberry truncates the URL, but it looks okay yet doesn’t work.

By: John Dodds

John Dodds — Tue, 29 May 2007 18:10:15 +0000

I suppose it depends on one’s definition of innovation. If you take it to be the original idea then, in most cases, the innovators are few in number and that is at odds with the bazaar model. The bazaar may or may not optimise the innovation, but I’m not convinced that it originates the innovation.

By: Krish

Krish — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:00:56 +0000

Here is my rebuttal to Mr. Carr.

http://www.krishworld.com/blog/general/nicholar-carr-has-got-it-wrong/

By: Revisiting The Cathedral And The Bazaar | iface thoughts

Revisiting The Cathedral And The Bazaar | iface thoughts — Sat, 26 May 2007 07:36:54 +0000

[...] also leads to the belief that innovation is not limited to individuals. JP says this much better. I think innovations can be offshoots of these evolutions. Of course, ideas usually are born in one [...]