Open source is a company; social media is a country

At the Sourceforge breakfast this morning we got some questions on what the organizational differences are between open source and social media. Here’s my answer:

One of the paradoxes of early 20th Century management was the observation that companies are best run as dictatorships, while countries are best run as democracies. Why was this? Management theorist Charles Barnard, in his theory of the firm, proposed that it was because organizations existed for a common “shared purpose”.  Countries, on the other hand, existed only to serve their people.

Shared purpose required singular vision, leadership and top-down control. Serving the people, on the other hand, benefits from bottoms-up recognition of needs and collective decision-making (voting).

Many people mistakenly think that open source projects are emergent, self-organized and democratic. The truth is just the opposite: most are run by a benevolent dictator or two. What makes successful open source projects is leadership, plain and simple. One or two people articulate a vision, start building towards it and bring others on board with specific tasks and permissions. The best projects are the ones with the best leaders.

Social media, on the other hands, doesn’t exist for a shared purpose. It exists to serve the individual. We don’t tweet to built Twitter, we tweet to suit ourselves. We blog because we can, not because we have signed on to a blogging project.

Seen this way, open source projects are like companies. Social media is like a country. Benevolent dictatorships rule the first; democracy the second.

The point: the nature of participation is very different between open source and social media, even though people tend to lump them together into "peer production". Open source is hierarchical by design, while social media structure is simply ruled by popularity.

Comments

[Enhanced Kre-Alkalyn]

dear all, i want to know company success story about open source service provider so I can learn from them, thanks you very much!

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[Michael Florin]

I am almost starting to think that countries might be better run by dictatorship, provided you get the right dictator (as crazy as that may sound)

I can't help to think that our government is broken with the current health care situation and our government's inability to pass any major legislation. I think it is crazy that we need to get a 60% majority (in the Senate to prevent a filibuster) for the Senate to approve anything the House sends its way.

The Democrats have one of the largest majorities in party history and yet they still are powerless against a minority of only 40%. Nothing will ever get done until we get rid of the filibuster. And yet, I still am not having much confidence in democracy, at least as exercised in the U.S.

[andrewroddik]

By social media, I mean things like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, blogs, and Wikipedia.
Any country or level of government is okay.
I'm doing a presentation and need some examples. Thanks.
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[Anna McMahon]

I completely agree with you. Social media is definitely like a country. It is there to serve their people. It seems like open source is more dictated by a few people who pick and choose the way to go about things. Social media is a bit different. They have to keep their people happy.

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[ben]

i agree

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[Jeff74]

I just came across this article while looking for information on Social media. I see that this has been written a while ago and people have been commenting on this for some time. But If I put this article in context with today's status of Social Media,I must say this article was very much ahead of time and as many people have predicted ,today Social MEdia is the buzz word in Internet.Anyways thanks for the great article.
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[Paul Smith]

Dictatorship is never really benevolent.

If it seems to be, you just haven't found out how it's screwing you yet.

[jake]

I agree partially, I run an advertisement company, so I can't speak for everybody but I certainly feel that my employees are far more creative when they have pretty free reign. Although of course this is much more important in my industry than in many others

[Justin Lewis]

Ouch. It's not facism when we do it. Understandable but wow. This is a very informational post.

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[jason]

Opensource allows you to focus on your customers and services. Here at Lake Tahoe Hotel ReservationsCentre we are using modified opensource applications to handle all the requests.

[David Shaw]

"Social media, on the other hands, doesn’t exist for a shared purpose. It exists to serve the individual. We don’t tweet to built Twitter, we tweet to suit ourselves. We blog because we can, not because we have signed on to a blogging project."

Its an interesting thought, but we cant help building the social medias sites value while we use them for our own needs. We are no longer providing content we ARE the content.

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[Jason]

Wow what a fascinating article. I never thought about it like this but you have opened my eyes.

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[Jason]

Social media is amazing. It's amazing to think what social media will be like in 10 years or more from now.

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[David Prouse]

I agree that open source has become a philosophy, but it also has to be practical.

cure hemorrhoids There must be an opportunity for professional developers to create "for profit" versions of their open source work or things will stagnate.

[Alex McCarthy]

Well put. I think social media is completely ruled by popularity as well. Just like at Myspace and Facebook.

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[John]

Nice, I never ever though of it this way, thanks for this.. and at Angela, those words have never been spoken, indeed!

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