How’s That Open Source Governance Working for You?

Too Long; Didn't Read

Nathan Schneider is an assistant professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He says open-source communities grant nearly absolute power to community founders and their successors. But this primitive governance system often results in what the 1970s feminist activist Jo Freeman called a “tyranny of structurelessness” Under the rhetoric of openness and meritocracy, an entrenched and disguised hierarchy reigns. Outside companies can hijack and steer development as long as they keep dictators happy, he says. Schneider: CommunityRule is a tool designed to help diverse groups get their governance house in order.