Digital Edge published a very thought provoking article from Jarod Lanier titled, “Digital Maoism“. It is a refreshing look at some of the current trends on the internet, such as collective information gathering on sites like Wikipedia and Digg. It is a well considered, balanced look at the need for both individual and collective thinking, and how Lanier believes that the pendulum has swung too far towards groupthink.

As an aside … this reminds me of the current debate around latest incarnation of the GPL. This Business Week article highlights the basic differences between the parties, and this Slashdot discussion goes into things a bit more deeply. I think that the OSS folks are learning that it is a heck of a lot more difficult to builld a solution that is functional instead of being ideologically pure. The reason why Maoism worked in China was that they had a captive audience. The FSF does not have this luxury, and they are risking irrelevance if they aren’t careful to make something that works for everyone.

Anyway, the article is very much worth the time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 5:21 pm and is filed under People, Relationships, Understanding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.