[okfn-discuss] The Four Principles of (Open) Knowledge Development (v0.1)

Mon May 8 13:06:26 UTC 2006

I've been talking for a while about the 'other' aspects of open 
knowledge -- i.e. those other than licensing and here's a first stab at 
getting my thoughts down on paper. Comments/critiques/additions 
*greatly* appreciated.

Regards,

Rufus

PS: in the spirit of open knowledge development I should probably wiki 
this ;) but for me -- probably as for many of you -- the mailing list is 
still the low-level tool of choice for iterating text such as this

The Four Principles of (Open) Knowledge Development
***************************************************

Introduction
============

Open knowledge means porting much more of the open source stack than 
just the idea of open licensing. It is about porting many of the 
processes and tools that attach to the open development process -- the 
process enabled by the use of an open approach to knowledge production 
and distribution.

The Four Principles
===================

Open knowledge allows (and requires for its success) a development 
process that is:
   1. incremental
   2. decentralized (and asyncrhonous)
   3. collaborative
   4. componentized (and 'packagized')

Incremental
-----------

Incremental implies a process that allows for lots of gradual 
improvement and contribution. Like all of the the four principles this 
applies to the development of closed as well as open knowledge. However 
it operates more powerfully in an 'open' situation where the boundary 
between participants and non-participants is porous and it is easier for 
'just anyone' to get involved.

Decentralized
-------------

Open knowledge allows for a decentralized (and asynchronous) development 
process. This greatly reduces rigidities and also allows for a far wider 
participation in a given project. At the same time it demands a more 
sophisticated set of development tools and processes.

Collaborative
-------------

Just like code, knowledge can be developed by a single individual but 
its real strength is that it can be developed collaboratively. The 
collaborative aspect of open knowledge is strongly related, and 
dependent upon, the the principles of decentralization and componentization.

Componentized
-------------

This probably the most important feature of (open) knowledge development 
as well as the one which is, at present, least advanced. If you look at 
the way software has evolved it now highly componentized into 
packages/libraries. Doing this allows one to 'divide and conquer' the 
organizational and conceptual problems of highly complex systems. Even 
more importantly it allows for greatly increased levels of reuse.

The power and significane of componentization really comes home to one 
when using a package manager (e.g. apt-get for debian) on a modern os. A 
request to install a single given package can result in the automatic 
discovery and installation of all packages on which that one depends. 
The result may be a list of tens -- or even hundreds -- of packages in a 
graphic demonstration of the way in which computer programs have been 
broken down into interdependent components.

Conclusion
==========

We are currently at a point where, with project such as wikipedia, we 
have powerful examples of the first three principles in action but 
little or none on the on the fourth.

In the early days of software there was also little arms-length reuse 
because there was little packaging. Hardware was so expensive, and so 
limited, that it made sense for all software to be bespoke and little 
effort to be put into building libraries or packages. Only gradually did 
the modern complex, though still crude, system develop.

The same evolution can be expected for knowledge. At present knowledge 
development displays very little componentization but as the underlying 
pool of raw, 'unpackaged', information continues to increase there will 
be increasing emphasis on componentization and reuse it supports. (One 
can conceptualize this as a question of interface vs. the content. 
Currently 90% of effort goes into the content and 10% goes into the 
interface. With components this will change to 90% on the interface 10% 
on the content).

The change to a componentized architecture will be complex but, once 
achieved, will revolutionize the production and development of open 
knowledge. Along with the other three principles of incrementalism, 
decentralization, collaboration it will characterize the process of open 
knowledge development.