michael_nielsen

I've been pretty shocked over the past 12 years how few other tech entrepreneurs I've met who've heard of Benkler or where motivated by his frameworks. Assume it's because either A) A lot of his work focuses on law and copyright, spectrum governance etc B) he isn't as wide eyed

But the core ideas are highly motivating, and provide a different orientation to how to think about social change and building the future How do we create a context where more is being added to the commons? How do we convert rival to non-rival goods?

The first question deals with changing institutions and context of economic production, and can lead one in revolutionary directions Second, to me, is just about "Software Eating the World" and progress in hard tech You figure out 3D printing and nanotech and everything = info

Benkler talks about Wikipedia, Linux, and Apache Web Server as modern wonders of the world. Places where loosely coordinated hobbyists outcompeted firms and nation states. My question has been, what Wikipedias have we not built yet, for want of the right wiki?

Wikipedia handles things we already know, even there questionably well, as it grounds out on verification from traditional sensemaking institutions that are losing authority. If you want to contribute to advancing knowledge -- gatekept peer review is still the main commons

This is why, starting from Benkler, there is a straight line @michael_nielsen's "Reinventing Discovery" If we want abundance, we need to expand the commons, especially at the frontiers of human knowledge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinventing_Discovery …

On sources: I found I got little out of Benkler that wasn't available through direct contact with the open source community. I did learn a lot from Ostrom, Olson, and (to some extent) Axelrod & Schelling, though. (Fun thread!)