“Commons-based Peer Production and Virtue” the author spoke on the importance of open source. The great thing about open source is that no singular person owns it, it is a collection of people who have a common goal and giving contributions to that goal. One of the biggest Operating systems is Linux, free software has created such an impact that government even took notice to it. Companies like IBM have invested a billion dollars into Linux to keep the server running. “what makes free software interesting from a social or moral perspective is its social and human structure (NISSENBAUM).” The author used the example of wiki which was a free open source software that allowed people edit documents and archives. This is a perfect example of open source because plenty of documents are on Wiki from history, celebrities, etc. and the wiki site is open to the public for anyone to edit and change information. Even with that kind of freedom people seem to respect one another’s work and have the same goal of delivering information through wiki.
“The Political Economy of Open Source Software” The problem with open source is that it’s free and there is no real direct way to monetize off of it. The author used a good example with Coke and how they have formulas to their product that no one can reproduce or improve. Intellectual property rights provide protections for innovators like Coke but that’s not the same for Linux or anyone who uses free open source operating systems. Some developers like Microsoft allows users to purchase and use their software on their computers but would not allow users to reproduce it. Apple are very strategic when it comes to software they send updates to all apple users which they do not monetize from directly however, they create certain features that can only be available on their new phone which forces users to go out and buy. Having free open source is great for people who wants experience in coding, but for compensation it may not be the best fit.
