Institutions vs. Collaboration in Software Development

Institutional development of software can’t compare to the collaborative model of open source development. Companies hire a range of employees to contribute much of their time to the development of a product. Open source software allows a single individual the ability to contribute as little or as much as they would like/can offer for furthering the product.

The 80/20 rule applied to open source development says that 20% of people contribute 80% of the features. When companies go through development they abandon the 20% of features that would be deemed as cost ineffective (one employee that contributes one idea isn’t worth paying for – therefore won’t be hired).

Clay Shirky gives a pretty inspiring talk titled Institutions vs. Collaboration and puts these ideas very eloquently. It’s worth the twenty minute presentation (it was recorded in 05, so you’ll have to get passed the overview of flickr.) and argues that there is going to be a revolution and institutions need to reexamine how they can change their development models.

Watch it here:

Or visit the TED website for other download options.