In my talk at the OSS Watch conference ... hmm, there's a theme developing here. Anyway, I gave two references for further reading, but due to time constraints in the talk I wasn't really able to expand upon them and explain how I think they apply to Apache. I thought I'd make a note of them here, and then someday when I have more time I will try and expand on the theme a little.
The first reference was Tim O'Reilly and his description of the architecture of participation in his article on the Open Source paradigm shift. It seems to me that the ASF is the ultimate architecture of participation, not just because of the excellent infrastructure but also because of the hard work that takes place in fostering the community around it. The social structures are just as much a part of the architecture as the mailing lists and source control systems.
The second reference, suggested by David, was Robert Axelrod and his theories on the evolution of cooperation. This is a less well thought-out reference, since I really need to read the book cover to cover (and probably The Complexity of Cooperation too). Essentially, what's happening to the ASF is literally evolving and emergent cooperative work, without any real need for central authority.
Posted by savs at July 5, 2005 9:00 PM