Open-sourcing as diffusion of innovation

by Peter Donovan

In order to have the "verdant ecosystem" that we all want, I would like to see the HM decision framework much more widely adopted than it is. The situation I see currently is that it is simple and highly effective--but after enormous and protracted effort, the number of practitioners is small. For those outside of the network (as well as some within it), it seems to be difficult to find out about Holistic Management, understand the potential benefits, compare alternatives, assess the risks, make an informed choice, or convince others in the family or organization.

Recently I have been reading Eric S. Raymond's papers on the open-source software phenomenon. Though there are huge differences between software and a human practice such as the Holistic Management decision framework, I am intrigued by the parallels. The open-source phenomenon may be an instructive example of the diffusion of innovations.

Software code is ultimately implemented by processors as machine language. With computers and the internet, copying and distributing code is easy and straightforward. The same code may work in Chengdu and Chile, and once installed, will instantly change the behavior of the machines that run it.

Innovations in human behavior such as the holistic decision framework are manifested by humans and groups of humans with all their emotional, spiritual, and cultural complexities. Though complex, these innovations can be represented, interpreted, and taught in human language. These interpretations can be copied and distributed in a variety of media.

Both software and innovative human practices:

• are instructions and information systems;
• are artifacts of creative human intelligence, authored by individuals and/or groups;
• require the would-be adopter to assess benefits, costs and risks, scalability, and compatibility with existing systems, practices, and organizations (both machine and human);
• tend to spread via networks.

Could the strengths of the open-source software approach be effectively applied to the dissemination of a decision framework?

The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a description of the open-source phenomenon in software development, and Raymond reports on the huge advantages, among them rapid bugfixing and adaptability to the conditions that are actually being experienced by an involved user community.

The closed-source development shops, by contrast, often tend to resist criticism and requests for adaptation of proprietary technology; it seems to be well understood in these companies that meeting the needs of real customers on an ongoing basis does little to generate new income. There is a fascinating discussion of use-value versus sale-value, and the widespread misconception that most programmer's jobs depend on sale value, or that software development is a manufacturing rather than a service enterprise.

The Magic Cauldron describes some of the economic models that are emerging. In it Raymond lists five factors that push toward open-source ("copyleft") methods. Keep in mind that he is writing about software development, but I see parallels with craftsmanlike textbook/introductory material that would introduce holistic decision making.

1. reliability/stability/scalability are critical
2. correctness of design and implementation cannot readily be verified by means other than independent peer review
3. the software is critical to the user's control of his/her business
4. the software enables or establishes a common computing and communications infrastructure
5. key methods (or functional equivalents of them) are part of common engineering knowledge.

To me, all five factors are relevant to an HM curriculum effort--for number 5, linear/reductionist decision making and planning processes have routine "functional equivalency" with the holistic framework.

One of the economic models Raymond mentions is that of providing packaging, support, compatibility, and accessories to open-source creations such as Linux (e.g. what Red Hat does, and MySQL does even better perhaps). An excerpt from Raymond:

The market-building effect of open source can be extremely powerful, especially for companies which are inevitably in a service position to begin with. One very instructive recent case is Digital Creations, a website-design house started up in 1998 that specializes in complex database and transaction sites. Their major tool, the intellectual-property crown jewels of the company, is an object publisher that has been through several names and incarnations but is now called Zope.

When the Digital Creations people went looking for venture capital, the VC they brought in carefully evaluated their prospective market niche, their people, and their tools. He then recommended that Digital Creations take Zope to open source.

By traditional software-industry standards, this looks like an absolutely crazy move. Conventional business-school wisdom has it that core intellectual property like Zope is a company's crown jewels, never under any circumstances to be given away. But the VC had two related insights. One is that Zope's true core asset is actually the brains and skills of its people. The second is that Zope is likely to generate more value as a market-builder than as a secret tool.

To see this, compare two scenarios. In the conventional one, Zope remains Digital Creations's secret weapon. Let's stipulate that it's a very effective one. As a result, the firm will able to deliver superior quality on short schedules--but nobody knows that. It will be easy to satisfy customers, but harder to build a customer base to begin with.

The VC, instead, saw that open-sourcing Zope could be critical advertising for Digital Creations's real asset--its people. He expected that customers evaluating Zope would consider it more efficient to hire the experts than to develop in-house Zope expertise.

One of the Zope principals has since confirmed very publicly that their open-source strategy has "opened many doors we wouldn't have got in otherwise." Potential customers do indeed respond to the logic of the situation--and Digital Creations, accordingly, is prospering.

Another interesting Raymond essay, Homesteading the Noosphere, describes the behavior and customs of the programmers ("hackers") who develop open-source software. He describes this culture as essentially a gift culture, rather than an exchange culture. The behaviors and property-rights customs Raymond describes are designed to conserve and protect reputation and honor, which is the principal reward system.

The benefits of the open-source approach for software (chronicled in The Cathedral and the Bazaar) include rapidly evolving prototypes, increased stability and security, and overall better code--at little or no cost to the consumer. Where many people are empowered to contribute, the solutions to seemingly intractable problems often appear.

It should be noted that the open-source approach probably cannot be applied to artistic creations such as novels or string quartets, but probably can to craftsmanlike productions such as curriculum material, which resembles software in that it can benefit from maintenance and problem-solving by people who are trying to use these materials in real-world situations, and who may have different perspectives on what the problems are.

Open-sourcing, for an innovative human practice such as the holistic decision framework, involves simplicity, accessibility, scalability, and overall utility and ease of use from the point of view of users. There have been a number of fine efforts already, but most of these lack maintenance as well as dissemination, or are in the shade because of copyright issues.

The foundation already exists to extend the open-source approach successfully to curriculum material about making holistic decisions. There is an international group of skilled and committed people who are experienced in the use of the framework and the practical problems of teaching and dissemination. People are frustrated by the slowness of change.

Effectively open-sourcing the HM framework may involve:

• assembling a diverse, committed, and skilled team
• being highly aware of the reward system, based on honor, appreciation, support and encouragement, project ownership, and acknowledgment
• designing a modular curriculum package that is highly effective, flexible, adaptable, and user-friendly, and very clearly open-source (and thus difficult to claim and commercialize, e.g. the GNU Public License or GPL). This should defuse some of the turf battles that have bedeviled the HM educator community in the past. Like Zope, such a package could be a market-builder rather than a secret weapon.
• using changelogs to give credit rather than proprietary branding--for example, a title such as "Community facilitator guide" rather than "Holistic Management Methods"
• supporting the team with financial and technical resources as needed

It is important to realize that the best open-source software efforts, such as the Linux operating system that runs this server, are products of a network of committed, passionate people who are solving problems that are important to them and with which they are intimately familiar. One of the reasons open-source has been such a successful strategy is that it tends to select for commitment, ability, and passion in a way that top-down project management can rarely equal. Working relationships tend to become collaborative rather than coercive, both because people are volunteers and because it is difficult to apply coercion over a network connection.

— Peter Donovan

Posted 13 May 2002
URL: managingwholes.com/open-source.htm