The Ignorance of Crowds

“Ten years ago, on May 27, 1997, a little-known software
programmer from Pennsylvania named Eric Raymond presented a paper
at a technology conference in Würzburg, Germany. Titled ‘The
Cathedral and the Bazaar,’ the paper caused an immediate stir, and
its renown has only grown in the years since. It is now widely
considered one of the seminal documents in the history of the
software industry.

“Raymond’s subject was the open source software movement, as
exemplified by what was then–and still is–its most famous
product, the Linux operating system. Open source projects, he
pointed out, represented a radically new method of software
development. Traditionally, sophisticated programs had always been
;built like cathedrals, carefully crafted by individual wizards or
small bands of mages working in splendid isolation.’ An open source
project, in contrast, was the product of a large and informal
community of volunteers who in aggregate ‘seemed to resemble a
great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches.’ What
was amazing, Raymond wrote, was that ‘the Linux world not only
didn’t fly apart in confusion but seemed to go from strength to
strength at a speed barely imaginable to
cathedral-builders…'”

Download
xpdf

Complete
Story (PDF File)