Wide Open:Open source methods and their future potential

The London based Think Tank Demos has published an excellent paper on some of the implications and potential arising out of the open source software movement.

This open and collaborative approach to creating knowledge has produced remarkable results, such as the Linux operating system and the web-based encyclopaedia Wikipedia. In defiance of the conventional wisdom of modern business, it can be argued that open source methods have led the main underlying innovations around the Internet.

Authors Geoff Mulgan, Tom Steinberg and Omar Salem argue that other fields have much to learn from open source methods – because they bring principles and working methods which can help to produce better knowledge, goods or services, or make them available on more widely beneficial terms.

(click on the title to access a free download of the paper from the Demos web site)