Groklaw: Why Free Software Really Matters

“Groklaw’s Shawn Boyette has written an article for Groklaw on
why Free Software really matters. He tells anecdotally what this
MIT research paper, ‘Management & Virtual Decentralised
Networks: The Linux Project,’ posits, that lowering barriers to
entry and participation and utilizing a virtual, decentralized
management structure are superior to command-and-control
hierarchies when it comes to software development.

“The MIT paper traces the history of business management
structures, like bureaucracies, the assembly line, closed
hierarchies, strategic alliances, economic webs, and the ‘learning
paradigm,’ and then compares the open Linux-style of networked
organization–virtual, decentralized collaboration–with Microsoft,
‘the archetypical centralised model in the industry…'”

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