Licenses and open software

Photo by Binkiexxx. Open software is based in a cooperative mode of production, based on personal reputation rather than on economic incentives. Furthermore, open source developers may have a “psychological contract” with their peers, linking them to each other’s work on grounds of trust and values of common interest (Chong, Sae & Shui). However, the sustainable existence of this cooperative form of creating software...

Apple vs Flash: standards, power and the end user

Photo by Ben HeineDuring the last months the blogosphere has widely covered the Apple-Flash incident. Apple excluded Flash from the Iphone and the new Ipad; the company justified the decision alleging that they are seeking to use open standards-html5- over a proprietary standard such as Flash.Leaving aside how questionable can be this decision coming from a company only rivalled by Microsoft in terms of being the most...

Open source as a positive externality for Internet

Photo by AGok In economics, a positive externality is the indirect impact of a non-directly associated actor in a given transaction. From this perspective, open source can be considered as a positive factor that has encouraged the development and popularity of internet. "The internet is built upon a constellation of technologies that were written under free software licenses that expressly allowed the copying and reproduction...