Join Nadia Asparouhova, author of "Working in Public," as she dives into the evolution of open source communities and their lessons for today’s creator economy. She discusses community taxonomies and how engagement has shifted from close-knit groups to broader audiences. Explore the distinction between active contributors and casual users, the significance of digital identities, and the rise of subscription models. Nadia also highlights the importance of managing trust and reputation within online spaces, offering insights for fostering collaboration.
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insights INSIGHT
Open Source Taxonomy
Open-source projects vary significantly, just like companies.
Classifying them by contributor and user growth reveals distinct community types.
insights INSIGHT
Stadium Communities
Stadium communities have low contributor growth but high user growth.
This model, exemplified by influencers, shifts focus from peer production to a central creator.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Influencers as Stadiums
Influencers resemble stadium communities with one star contributor and many observers.
This differs from early open-source's collaborative peer production.
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In 'The Dark Forest', Earth faces an impending alien invasion by the Trisolarans in four centuries. The Trisolarans have sent sophons, advanced subatomic particles, to monitor all human activities, making Earth's defense plans vulnerable. To counter this, the Wallfacer Project is initiated, where four men, including Luo Ji, a Chinese astronomer and sociologist, are given unlimited resources to develop secret strategies hidden from both Earth and Trisolaris. The novel explores themes of human nature, existential dread, and the philosophical implications of the Fermi Paradox, using the metaphor of the 'dark forest' to describe the universe as a place where civilizations must hide and be cautious to survive.
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In this book, Eric S. Raymond discusses two distinct models of software development: the 'cathedral' model, where source code is restricted to a small group of developers, and the 'bazaar' model, where code is developed publicly over the internet. Raymond draws from his experiences with the Linux kernel and his own project, fetchmail, to illustrate the benefits of the bazaar model, including the rapid discovery of bugs through public scrutiny. The book also outlines 19 'lessons' for creating good open-source software and discusses the impact of this model on the broader software development community.
Working in Public
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Nadia Eghbal's "Working in Public" delves into the collaborative nature of open-source software development. The book explores the social dynamics, motivations, and challenges involved in building and maintaining software projects through collective effort. Eghbal examines various models of collaboration, highlighting the importance of community building and shared responsibility. The book offers valuable insights into the complexities of open-source projects and their impact on the broader technological landscape. It serves as a guide for understanding and participating in these collaborative endeavors.
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Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy
The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death's End
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The Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Liu Cixin is a groundbreaking work of science fiction that delves into humanity's encounter with an alien civilization from a planetary system with three suns. The series explores themes of science, technology, and the survival of humanity in a universe where civilizations are often hostile. The trilogy includes The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End, each offering a unique perspective on the complexities of interstellar politics and the nature of the universe.
What can we learn from the evolution of open source communities and how might they be applied to online communities and the creator economy today? Author Nadia Asparouhova joins host Sonal Choksi to talk about Asparouhova's book, Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software, from Stripe Press.
They start with a a taxonomy for communities, and then dig into how open source has changed over time, which learnings from open source do and don’t apply to new communities online, how communities intersect with the growing desire for more "high-shared context" groups and spaces (including even podcasts and newsletters), and more.
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