Doc Searls writes about Tom Friedman’s new bestseller, from a Linux/open source angle.
In Part 1, I said Tom’s flat-world insights are right-on, though a bit compromised by emphasis on competition–much of which isn’t there–between Open Source communities and Microsoft. I also said he gave insufficient credit to open source for flattening the world in the first place–making Google and cheap wireless possible, for example.
In Part 2, I want to examine the human origins of the open-source materials we’re using to build this new world. And I want to start by distinguishing them from corporate origins. Again, this is not to diminish the importance of big-company contributions to the flat-world revolution but to subordinate them to the profound work being done by individuals and small groups.
