Where does open source come from?
Since ancient times, know-how has been shared under non-monetary terms. Our ancestors learned to survive with basic rules that were derived from empirical experience and shared with one another: what to eat, what makes us sick, how to hunt a rabbit, and how to escape the lion. Sharing recipes, medicinal cures, were in sense one of the first open source practices. Know-how was out there, transmitted and iterated from one individual to another. We lived in a society of techne, driven by practical knowledge and apprenticeship for young generations to learn.
The history of open source is often documented in the twentieth century and in the field of technology. What defines open source? First, the presence of shared resources within a private economy. Second, these resources are organized by businesses and for business – not as a tax system. It turns out that in the history of China, a model existed that bears striking resemblance to what we call today an open source architecture: the well-field system.
Between Years 900 and 300 BCE, government advisors worked with merchants to better organize China’s economy. Chinese commerce was then based on farming with most businesses being private. Merchants and farmers did not own the land but could trade goods and services freely. The architects divided farming fields into 9 squares, and placed a well in the center square. The center square was shared with all 8 commercial farmers who could use it to procure water and feed themselves. The water supply was sufficient to serve everyone, in a similar way that free software does not hit a scarcity limit. It can be reproduced and distributed at will. Water was the source coming from a commonly maintained well. The harvest in the center could also be distributed pro bono to everyone, but this time in limited quantities that did not cannibalize the commercial activities of private farms.
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The well-field system. Private squares referred, in the original model, as farmers selling crops but not owning the land. Notice the link between the shape of the field and the character for “well” in Chinese.
Open source is to software what the well-field system was to farming: a way for private businesses to collaborate and compete. The spirit of open source was in existence many centuries before the commerce of intellectual property gave it a mainstream and scalable medium to prosper: first from unstructured gift economics to the first structured attempts like the well-field system. In an age where the world’s economy requires constant government intervention to operate, the past and present demonstrate private businesses can create profits and shared value at the same time, reducing that burden. Sharing essential resources benefits customers, businesses, and alleviates the need for public safety nets, excess taxes, and debt. And that is thanks to the entrepreneurs and open source enthusiasts like you.
Acknowledgement: Dr. Vadim Rossman, co-author of scholarly paper on SSRN.
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