Yes agreed....relying community dynamics etc. alone is high risk...there
also the need for low effort control through standards and certification
etc. Tim's Wikipedia example is a good one....it also illustrates that
part of the solution to managing complex communities is to have many
smaller interelated foci which are driven by user needs.
Achieving balance isn't easy..... and when I view all this when wearing
a project management hat I come to some of the same conclusions you do.
The ecology of what we are talking about is indeed complex.... with
successful community driven projects .... and more "focused" efforts
all interacting and achieving a wide range of ROI's. I suppose that's
why open source has spawned a whole host of academic research initiatives.
Joseph
Will Ross wrote:
> On Mar 23, 2006, at 10:31 PM, Joseph Dal Molin wrote:
>
> > Will Ross wrote:
> >> Joseph,
> >>
> >> I disagree on your community challenge. I think the "community"
> >> aspect of open source is not only over rated, it is in fact a
> >> negative, a risk factor to be considered.
> >
> > I guess its a matter of perspective....in the early stages of a
> > project
> > ....yes community can pose a significant negative risk factor.... I
> > don't agree that that remains to be true once critical mass of
> > adoption
> > is achieved.
>
> Once the critical mass of adoption is achieved, project forking, or
> the spawning of lookalike projects, is added to the risk calculus.
> I am not an economist, but my gut tells me the prospect of a
> community of users is a net neutral, even if the end result is a
> project that moves forward, adds functionality, achieves a high
> adoption rate and features a lot of active participants committing
> improvements. One of the costs of a community is the high number of
> tasks the project leaders must undertake to keep a core goal in
> focus, and to constantly re-teach the community that the project has
> a focus, and to police the community so that collaboration does not
> dissipate the focus.
>
> [wr]
>
> - - - - - - - -
>
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