What early Linux developers can teach us about open

knowledge

Ben SpigelDepartment of GeographyThe Ohio State University

spigel.1@osu.edu

The problem of knowledge on the internet

• Open knowledge is useless unless people use it

• One must understand knowlege in order to use it

• How do we develop this understanding for users of open knowledge?

Why is this a problem for open knowledge

• People need to learn how to use the knowledge

• People need to learn why the knowledge should be open

• This is hard to do over the internet

What is knowledge?

•More than just facts

•Applied information

•Information modified by

human intelligence

Why is knowledge hard to understand

• Communication requires a shared 'language'

• Even if everyone speaks English, a shared jargon or 'codebook' is needed

Here's the scoop:

taylor-uucp-1.03beta from convex - no patches applied...GCC 2.1 (from tsx-11, I think - H.J. ftp'd it somewhere)

Linux 0.95a virgin kernel

I had to tweak the Makefile (don't use -O, -s, or -g!), and doa real dance with the configuration file and conf.h, but it talksand transfers files! I haven't gotten uuxqt running yet (it gives me a memory fault), and the binaries are AWFULLY big (sigh) - the tar of just the executables and stuff is just over 1MB, but it runs!

Hey, H.J., got shared libs for gcc-2.1 yet?? :) Text

comp.os.linuxApril 5, 1992

How does a shared language form?

• A shared past is needed

• Shared history, shared practices, shared stories

• Communities of Practice

Communities of practice

• Allows people to share tacit knowledge

• Hard to form over the internet

• Requires people to trust each other

The case of Linux

• Immediately a global community formed

• Analysis of early newsgroup postings shows almost no miscommunications

• But how?

1,900Kilometers

Legend

PostersPOSTERS

0 - 1

2

3

4 - 5

9 - 10

Linux as a community of practice

• Shared knowledge of programming (C and Unix)

• Shared computer jargon

• Shared history of hacking

• Shared programming

1,900Kilometers

Legend

PostsCOUNT

0 - 3

4 - 8

9 - 15

16 - 27

28 - 35

Implications for open knowledge

• Free, open and modifiable isn't enough

• For the knowledge to be useful, a community must form around it

• Forming this community is very difficult

Building an open knowledge community of practice

• Conferences like this

• Creation of a more involved electronic community

• Common methods to access open knowledge

• Shared stories of why we need open knowledge

Challenges for open knowledge community

building

• Diversity of the open knowledge tent

• Role of the Open Knowledge Foundation

• Different elements of open knowledge