Re: <nettime> OFSS01: First Orbiten Free Software Survey

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

rishab-

>> more importantly, the 'bazaar' is not necessarily a result of multiple,
>> concrete cooperations, but one of a proximity (through newsgroups, mailing
>> lists, etc.) of people working on their own, separate projects. the Bazaar
>> has many individual shops between which advice, insult and information can
>> be shouted back an forth. it might even work better if there are not too
>> many people who stick their fingers into too many tents at any one time.
>
>we use 'bazaar' in a somewhat technical sense - a development methodology,
>not a market structure. i.e. in comparison with raymond's 'cathedral' .
>in that sense, a system with projects that involve many people has
>'bazaar' style development. if the system is more like an aggregation of
>several small projects, developed singlemindedly, it's more like ...
>an aggregation of miniature cathedrals? note that this in no way refelects
>on or takes away from the distributed nature of the system; only on the
>nature of _development_ of projects.

again - i don't agree. the dichotomy that you set up between bazaar and
cathedral - i may be misguided or uninformed about the standard reading of
these concepts - seems too strict, because even if a specific project is
run by one or two people, they are most likely in contact with many others
who feed them ideas, critique, maybe even bits of code. the organisational
structure of who is formally involved in which projects does not
necessarily reflect the multiplicity of social relations in which it is
embedded. the cathedral is a principle that seeks to formalise, hierarchise
or exclude these relations. the bazaar is an environment where the
individual wheelers and dealers benefit and thrive in the bustle of many
stalls, next to each other, but connected in multiple ways. to insist that
these projects are 'individualistic' just because they have one name to
them, rather than 25, seems unnecessary to me.

greetings

-a

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