Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Build a Digital Republic of Their Own, by David Bollier, The New Press, 2008 — http://www.onthecommons.org.
When people share things get better. In Viral Spiral, David Bollier reviews the history of the open, sharing culture that has both been powered by, and powers the internet revolution. For anyone who spends time creating or consuming content on the web, there is a lot of interest here. Most of the ideas will feel familar, but Bollier puts them together is a clear, logical framework that gives you a good sense of how we got to where we are today, and the forces behind the movement.
The story starts with Richard Stallman who started the free software movement. A basic idea behind this is the idea that users should have the option to adapt hardware and software that they own to meet their needs. For instance you buy an iPhone — do you think it is right that you are limited to using AT&T’s phone system? It is pretty easy to ‘jailbreak’ your iPhone, and set it up for use with other cell carriers — whyshould Apple care? It is your phone isn’t it? Well in fact your purchase agreement with Apple not only prohibit you from doing this, but breaking the rules can result in your phone getting “‘bricked’ — rendered inoperable — through iPhone software updates. Stallman planted the seed that has since grown into the open software movement, which now powers much of the internet and the web 2.0 world.
One of the key advantages of treating key infrastructure (such as Internet transmission protocols and computer operating systems) as a commons is that people have the freedom to modify and improve them, with resulting benefits for all. Innovation and competition can flourish more readily. At the content layer,much of the appeal of the commons is the creative freedom, above and beyond what the market may enable. Precisely because it is a commons, and not a market, people’s freedoms are not constrained by marketability.
A powerful idea that spawned a whole new way of thinking about hardware and software technology.
In the middle of the book it does get a little buried in the inside history of the Creative Commons movement and organization. I found my self speed reading through several chapters. Creative Commons is an important movement, and it is helpful to understand the motivations behind its creation. If you don’t know anything about Creative Commons, or have heard some mention or are not sure quite what it is, this may not be the best place to start. Surf on over to creativecommons.org and look over their materials. While I did not find Bollier’s details on the inner politics of the organization very engaging, I am a big supporter of the Creative Commons ideal. All of my content is covered under a Creative Commons license — for non-commercial purposes anyone can do whatever they want — all I ask is you mention where the stuff came from. With the rapid rise in information sharing facilited by technology Creative Commons just makes sense:
In a pre-Internet context, the whole idea of a creating a new international license architecture and network of legal experts might seem ridiculously unrealistic. But by 2003 there were enough examples of “distributed intelligence” popping up that it no longer seemed so crazy to think that a passionate corps of dispersed volunteers could collaborate as catalysts for change.
The chapter on education describes the start of the text book/learning module site Connexions as well as the MIT opencourseware initiative. I wish this chapter had been longer — I guess reflective of my particular interests — but there is an excellent biblography which I plan to use to explore further.
This quote in the books final chapter really sums up the ideas nicely:
John Seely Brown, the former director of Xerox PARC, has said, “From my perspective, a key property of participatory cultures is that they help to create both a culture of learning and a culture of doing. The social basis of doing (e.g. networked communities of interest/ practice) that you see emerging here actually form reflective practicum(s). This, in turn, ends up grounding epistemology—ways of knowing—and provides a pathway back to a kind of pragmatism that Dewey first talked about that is situated between realism and idealism.This is the pathway to creating a learning society and a culture that can embrace change by unleashing and affording productive inquiry in powerful and exciting ways.”
Overall it is an excellent book, full of good information about the power of sharing, and how this growing movement is impacting the way we create and share ideas.
Download the book | Viral Spiral
New Press has authorized the following download of the text of Viral Spiral. I hope that anyone who has the chance to browse through the PDF version of the book will want to buy a hard copy.
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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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