[Bradford] Hmmm

[John R. Hudson]

On Fri, 2013-05-24 at 12:40 +0100, Paul Colley wrote:
> Many people say that open source software developers have the most
> efficient ecosystems for learning that have ever existed. What is it,
> then, that is so special about the way developers do things? Is there
> something that could act as a model for the future of work, or the
> future of education?

> http://eskokilpi.blogging.fi/2013/03/10/emergence-and-self-organization/

> Discuss :-)
> 
In the present, there is Gabriella Coleman's Coding Freedom but, for
example, Ricardo Semler (Google 'Maverick!') did much the same thirty
years ago when he created interdependent teams in his own company and
with small companies set up by ex-employees.

What is special is 'interdependence' - that is neither independence nor
dependence. Employment often leads to dependence which does not promote
personal development; the culture of individualism stresses independence
and self-reliance but, to achieve anything, most of us need to have
relationships with others. Independence rarely, if ever, leads to
achievement.

15 years ago I heard a stunning talk by Ralph Stacey (cited at the end
of the piece) in which he argued that people have failed to take account
of the psychology of successful working.

If you look at the growth of non-conformist churches in their heyday,
they worked very much like today's FOSS developers. It was only in the
twentieth century that many of them were subverted by managerialism and
began to decline.

Going back further, it has been argued that one reason for British
success in the industrial era was its culture of clubs and associations
- groups of equals who got together to support each other. It has been
argued that the Luddites were not anti-progress but anti the dependent
relationships which the owners of the mills insisted on.

John
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