Dec
17th
Mon
17th
As open source thinking spreads like wildfire, one has to ask: is there any ‘there’ there? And, if there is, can the ideas and values bundled up in the word ‘open’ help change the way we change the world? Now is the time to dive into these questions and see what open source thinking can do. Open source and web 2.0 have driven one of the biggest social innovations of our time: the use of massive and distributed collaboration to create knowledge, manage organizations and mobilize movements. These innovations are leading to significant changes in the media, education and the economy at large. They are giving us new tools to do our work, and are also ushering in a new way of thinking. Open source thinking. However, these technologies are only half the story. We are seeing the idea of ‘open’ pop up everywhere. Ideas about ‘open systems’. ‘open space’ and the ‘open society’ have been with us for years. But a scan of Wikipedia and the blogosphere turns up almost a dozen new ‘open’ or ‘open source’ domains including content, research, media, education, philanthropy, cities and even religion. The open meme – and open source thinking – are spreading.
