Comment Re:Same problem that comes with "freedom of speech (Score 1) 119
Well, I hope that things will work out the way you suggest -- that nice guys will win out over not so nice ones in an open-source environment. But I think that the Darwinism example is probably not a good support for such an argument, since evolution in the wild usually favors the more aggressive opponent. To use a somewhat similar metaphor, "bad money drives out good."
However, it may be that evolution isn't really a very good metaphor for the open-source development community, since it would imply that there are no social rules, and clearly there are lots of social rules in the open source community about what is acceptable and what is not that aren't just based on utility (which is all evolution cares about) but based on values.
I actually think a more appropriate metaphor would be a small society with "normative values" -- things that everyone accepts as ok or not ok. Clearly, we have a case here where the normative values haven't been established.
However, it may be that evolution isn't really a very good metaphor for the open-source development community, since it would imply that there are no social rules, and clearly there are lots of social rules in the open source community about what is acceptable and what is not that aren't just based on utility (which is all evolution cares about) but based on values.
I actually think a more appropriate metaphor would be a small society with "normative values" -- things that everyone accepts as ok or not ok. Clearly, we have a case here where the normative values haven't been established.
