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I’m writing a paper with tips non-profit and government leaders can take from how the Internet was built. For lack of a better term, I’m calling the organization that built the Internet (broadly defined to include the web) an “open system” as opposed to traditional organizations which I call “closed systems”. I would like to use a clear, readable, definition and assume one exists (or maybe a better term?) but haven’t found it. Any suggestions on where to look, better definitions, better terms to use, or wording and expansion on what is below? (Thanks for your help.)
I’d like to include 1) a dictionary type definition, and 2) a compare/contrast list that illustrates the differences between the two approaches. Here’s what I have so far:
Definition:
In systems theory, an open system is a system which continuously interacts with its environment. In technology, it is one that supports “open standards” and can be made to interoperate with other computer systems. In science it means a system that allows matter or energy to flow across system boundaries. For the purpose of this paper an open system is an organization or project that has porous, flexible, boundaries and is open to contributions, ideas, and direction from the outside. This is in contrast to our traditional organization and project structures which are “closed systems” and have clearly defined boundaries and tightly control resources, direction setting, and production. Note that these are extremes and in real life there is a continuum of behavior between these poles.
Table Comparing characteristic tendencies of closed vs. open systems
| Characteristic | Closed System | Open System |
| Leadership | Clearly identified. Leadership and authority positions tightly tied. | Leadership actions can be made by a variety of actors. Leadership and authority loosely coupled. |
| Authority | Strong. Authority figures can firmly set and enforce direction and organize activities. | Weak. Authority figures suggest and cajole directions and activities. |
| Membership | Clearly defined by employment, contracts, or formal declarations | May not be clearly defined. Determined by adoption of behaviors. |
| Ownership | Tightly held. Intellectual and physical property is owned by the system and controlled by its authorities. | Open and shared. Intellectual property is open licensed and shared. Use is determined by users. |
| Boundaries | Fixed and firm. Members are in or out. | Porous. Participants may join and leave, without giving notice. |
| Objectives | Unitary and clear. Established by authorities. | Different in different parts of the system and determined by participants. |
| Decisions | Made by those “above” in the hierarchy and passed down. | Made in many places throughout the system. |
| Structure | Fixed and hierarchical one to many relationships (e.g., employee reporting to employer) and hub and spoke (e.g., suppliers providing to a manufacturer) | Fluid networks with bi-directional communications and activities. |
| Incentives | Clearly defined and reliant on financial rewards – salaries, fees, bonuses. | Mixed and reliant on financial as well as other personal rewards including acknowledgement, mastery, social good. |
| Location | Headquarters is clearly defined. Work is done in offices and factories. | No physical headquarters. Work is done in many venues. |
| Work time | During formal “work hours” with official vacations | Happens at any time, often during vacations! |
I’m spending my weekend in Austin at the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation bi-annual conference. I came to meet new people, hear good discussion, eat some good bar-b-que, and pick up tips for facilitating interesting events. It is all working out for me.
Here’s a few of the cool things Andy and Sandy have enabled in Austin that I don’t tend to see at the typical conferences and workshops I attend:
There isn’t a ton of technology here. I really miss having an active backchannel (there was a little activity on twitter). I did like:
I’m looking forward to trying some of these things in events I’m involved with.
I apologize for the posting gap here. I haven’t gone completely silent, but have instead started blogging on similar topics at the Personal Democracy Forum where I am now a Senior Editor. I’ll do some cross-posting here and my take off on special tangents as well, but won’t be as regular as I once intended to be. I’ll continue to manage PC Update and maintain the calendar. Please visit at my new home and I hope to see you at the PDF conference in June.
The Personal Democracy Forum has announced that Rebooting America, an anthology of essays, will be released in June to commemorate its 5th anniversary conference. Allison Fine, along with Micah Sifry, Andrew Rasiej and Josh Levy, will be editing the volume.
We are lucky to have Allison join us live and online tomorrow (4/29) at 10am ET to answer questions about the book and her work. Allison is a regular contributor to the PDF and author of Momentum, winner of the 2007 Terry McAdam Book Award for outstanding contribution to the advancement of nonprofit management. In Momentum she argues that digital tools are important because they connect us to one another in inexpensive, accessible, and massively scalable ways.
Ask your questions now and come back tomorrow to join in the discussion.
The Center for Global Development has just announced that Scott McNealy, co-founder and Chairman of Sun Microsystems will be speaking in Washington DC on May 5 at 11am. The free event called “Open Source, Open Education and Eco-friendly: Can Sharing Improve Policy?” will focus on how ideas of openness and sharing work in business and how they can help improve public policy and international development.
McNealy, self-anointed, champion of “sharing,” is a forceful voice for open standards and open source; has funded Curriki.org, a collaborative education resources project; and recently announced Sun’s OpenEco.org to help reduce greenhouse gases. Lawrence MacDonald will be managing the event and I’ll be a discussant.
RSVP now and come join the discussion.
While it is big news that life expectancy in the US is falling for significant numbers of women, I was also taken by the source — a paper being published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. The Public Library of Science argues that “unfettered access to this research literature will… hasten the development of new treatments for those most in need.” Check out page A1 of today’s Washington Post for the story.
The 2008 edition of the “Computers, Freedom, and Privacy” conference will be held in New Haven, CT from May 20 through 23. The program includes sessions like:
Early bird registration ends on May 2.
That’s the question to be answered in an upcoming book, Rebooting America, being prepared by the folks at the Personal Democracy Forum. It will be a collection of essays about what the “next generation” of American democracy should look like edited by Allison Fine, Micah Sifry, Andrew Rasiej and Josh Levy.
Essays have been invited from the likes of Yochai Benkler, danah boyd, Steven Clift, Ellen Miller, David Weinberger, and you. “Up to three” submitted essays will be included in the book. Authors of those essays will also get a free pass to the Personal Democracy Forum in NYC in June.
If you are more a critic than an author, you can vote on submissions (after you register). There are already four submissions to review including Mark Murphy’s nine principles of “online opinion aggregation” and Pablo del Real’s proposal to let people vote on the bills their representatives are voting on.
I’m very excited to have two Brits joining for upcoming LIVE Interviews Online. Suw Charman-Anderson, blogger and social media consultant, will be online on Tuesday (4/22) to talk about how social media matters to government and how digital rights matter to us. I’m hoping she’ll also offer insights on how these issues differ from the US to the UK.
On April 30 Becky Hogge, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, will join us to talk about her work. ORG works to preserve our rights in the digital age on issues like copyright reform, electronic voting, network neutrality and online privacy. Becky also writes the New Statesman and openDemocracy among others.
This is a great opportunity to get direct feedback from across the pond so please be sure to ask questions now.
John Sebes and Greg Miller have identified a big problem — electronic voting is broken. And they have a big idea — fix it with a collaborative, transparent, open source approach. They call it a “digital public works project.” They argue that American elections are suffering a loss of trust and that commercial vendors expected to provided voting technology can’t be expected to put the publics’ interests before their own. John and Greg propose that a team of technologists working with a virtual community of volunteers design and develop a trustworthy e-voting technology.
To manage this process they are establishing a new organization, the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation (OSDV). The OSDV will look at the entire ballot system including design of software but also hardware, systems, standards, and specifications. The Foundation will also play an promotional role to convince the public this approach can work and is better.
John Sebes will be online with us on April 10, 2008 at 2pm ET to discuss the OSDV and issues with voting technology. Ask him questions, join the discussion or read the transcript at LIVE Interviews Online.