I am in the midst of developing a community around a 'NetModern' approach to life. More on that later. But for now just a few observations on the software I'm using to develop the collaborative community (blog, events, newsfeeds, etc).
The emergence of Drupal.org as an open source platform for WWW development is a case study for the benefits of open source ideas.
To say that founder Dries Buytaert is humble about the seed he planted is an understatement to rival saying Mozart could compose. From his basic home page to his consistent disregard for opportunities to personally capitalize on his idea, the Belgian authored the PHP-based platform with the open source frontier in mind. And all he wants for Christmas is a new desktop. Maybe one of the millions of Drupal users can oblige. I know I'll be sending him a card this year.
The software is supported for free by an army of English, Russian, Hungarian, Italian, more Italian, and Japanese developers. The code is rewritten three times a day as bugs are eradicated by sophisticated automated workflows and colaborative development environments.
Support for users who adopt the system is supported by users themselves as the community seeks to solve problems that impact (or could potentially impact) them all. Most issues are resolved within 24 hours. The open architecture allows modules to be developed, limited only by the creativity of the developers.
Numerous communities have implemented Drupal on a massive scale (see the seeds of the Howard Dean web mobilization that changed electoral planning irrevocably) and most recently Bluffton Today, the best implementation of citizen journalism on the web, used Drupal to power its community.
The Open Source movement is in the process of shifting space and no industry or pursuit will be immune. It reflects a social ethic where economic gain is only a single element in a broader lifestyle. It makes self evident the benefits of working together to mutual gain.
Labels: internet
