A New Age (part 2)
Yesterday I wrote here that there are 4 ways that the ever-changing world is changing my life, and focused on “Going Public” as the first way. Today I want to focus on participating in “open sourcing”.
Currently this term is a buzz word for individuals and companies coming together to collaborate on projects and problems in order to hurdle each problem and situation that comes up in life’s arenas.
Open sourcing focuses on the idea that I do something well (I hope anyway) and I enjoy doing certain things, and by pooling my talents with others who enjoy that thing, we can move ahead faster than I could alone.
For instance, I love small groups. It’s one of my favorite parts about being a part of this era of church. I think I have a good grasp of how to effectively do small groups and have an interest in excelling in this arena. But I don’t know everything, so I gladly share with other pastors or on this blog or in any number of ways what I do know about small groups, and do so in a way that is inexpensive (blogs are free, so is word of mouth), and easy to read or apply. Then others do the same, and through this experience, my knowledge and understanding of the small group environment is enhanced.
Google, IBM, Sun, Firefox, Lifechurch.tv, and Wikipedia are just a few of the successful companies that have “open sourced” their organization, and enhanced our lives as people over the last few years.
I’m no expert, but if I ever become one, even by default, I’d like to be able to say that as an expert, I still “open source” my expertise for the greater good of those who can take it and expand upon the work I’ve done.
My own mind is swimming right now after One Prayer about how the church can do this better. I’ve been having these radical thoughts about how we can come together to out source and open source our expertise as we watch the body of Christ form into what He actually wanted it to be. Like maybe if I’m an “expert” on small groups, and another church in our area is an “expert” musically or in their Sunday service or their work with the less fortunate, how can we utilize and link up with one another, for the purpose of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ?
Your feelings on open sourcing please?
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I think your concept of open source isn’t quite correct. The idea behind open source isn’t so much about collaboration but about freedom and sharing. The idea is that I have some good ideas and the skills to execute them. I do so and rather then horde them for myself, I share not only the finished product with other people, but the means (and freedom) for others to do the same thing or improve upon it. Note that I did the initial project all by myself, and someone who has an idea to improve it may never work with me. But the key to open source is that I grant others the freedom to take what I’ve done and run with it.
Now, the great part of the idea of open source is that it naturally allows a large amount of collaboration. If others can see what I’ve done, then we can work together to make it even better.
Good is good, but better is, well, better.
Thanks for the clarification Ian! I did know that but didn’t explain that very well. In a way, we’ve just open sourced the idea of open source.
i think i’m going to bring this up in guy’s bible study tonight.. we’re doing the book.. every man’s battle
good points
open sourcing is every man’s battle? I thought it was porn.
[...] A New Age (part 2) [...]
Just to back up what Ian said, “open source” can be used in a few different ways, but the most prevalent way is by sharing everything your work. In the software world, this means not just the finished product, but the “source code” of the product, something which private enterprise has traditionally been loathe to do (i.e. Microsoft).
But like you say, you can apply the idea to a number of different areas. Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia, as not only the finished product is shared, but so is the history of its evolution, as well as the discussion surrounding each article.
Part of the reason the Internet is a profound change is because of how much an open source philosophy has not just spread, but succeeded. It is not anti-capitalist, it’s merely more ideological and stringent on what is worthy of capitalization. For software, open source says that the code should be free, and the service is what’s worth charging for.
If you’d like to read up more on Open Source from the software/Internet/copyleft kind of perspective, look up the General Public License (GPL), Richard Stallman, and the Free Software Foundation on Wikipedia or by googling them, and you’ll find a moving history.
Hmmmm. I’m pondering the tension between intellectual proptery/free market capitalism and open sourcing. These ponderings are likely to be long-winded and rather pompous. I think I’ll blog me a little blog about the topic rather than confining my pompousity here.
(I’ll leave it to you to determine: Is my stealing your topic and running with it to my own blog an emblem of what is right or what is wrong with the whole open sourcing menality?)
Wow guys, this is great discussion. Thanks for the insights Ian, Eric, and post stealing Jeff. You should refer to your blog as “Martysdeepthoughts” now. Just kidding. We’re open source here!
[...] Open Sourcing: Good, Bad, or inevitable There’s an outstanding discussion about open sourcing here. [...]
[...] A New Age (part 2) [...]