Monday, April 06, 2020

Community driven innovation and freedom

Picture this ... a world where we have an industry with open source innovation at its heart. Communities come together to tackle problems. Majority decisions are made in the open through mutual respect and often lots of discussion. Differences of opinion are a reality inside these open source communities as outside.

In this world if you don't like the way a community is heading then you get involved and try to persuade them to change and understand your point. If there are many more people who believe the same then they get involved too and maybe that community changes direction. But in this reality you don't complain when a decision goes against you ... you respect the choices the community makes and you have the freedom to go and try to create your own community elsewhere if that's the best option.

You also don't complain about a community when you've had minimal or even zero involved. You don't complain about dominance of communities by vendors or individuals if you fail to get involved or fail to get a majority of like minded people active enough for them to gain voting rights.

Even without voting rights or until they are obtained, influence is something which is possible because everything is discussed in the open. In this ideal world you get involved and help. You spend the time to earn the same rights as others. You expend the time and energy and do the work that is required to gain those voting rights because they are a privilege and not an automatic right. However, if something is important to you then you spend that time to earn it.

Sometimes I think we live in this world but then I wake up!

No comments: