The JP Allen Blog

I’ll be presenting my short paper on “Three Strategies for Open Source Deployment:  Substitution, Innovation, and Knowledge Reuse” at the Open Source Systems 2010 conference this May.

I wrote the paper because I see a number of organizations (including my own dear University) using what I call a substitution strategy for open source:  rip out existing proprietary software, and replace it with a ‘free’ open source equivalent.  That strategy has advantages, but it ignores many of the unique benefits of open source use.  I classify these unique advantages into two types:  an increased rate of innovation inside organizations (innovation), and an increased rate of innovation sharing between organizations (knowledge reuse).

In certain situations, such as my San Francisco local government study, I’d argue that the smarter open source strategy would be innovation, not substitution.  Focus your open source efforts on new deployments for unmet organizational needs, and let them grow.  Don’t spend all your time trying to replace existing proprietary software that ‘works’.

My paper on how Web 2.0 sites deal with ‘bad’ behavior will be published in the Spring 2010 issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.  (Fear not, accreditation freaks!  Despite the ‘magazine’ name, it’s a peer-reviewed article.)

The editors gave it a new title:  “Knowledge-Sharing Successes in Web 2.0 Communities”.  The updated title better reflects my argument that the field of ‘Knowledge Management’ can, and should, learn from Web 2.0 communities how to get people to share more knowledge.

So put away those knowledge lifecycle diagrams and action plans, and start copying shamelessly from the masters at Craigslist, Wikipedia, Yelp, PlentyOfFish, Digg, and, heaven forbid, Facebook.

[Update:  article published in the Spring 2010 edition.]