Howard Rheingold is an advocate for the open source Internet movement. He discusses cooperation and collaboration relating it back to the start of mankind. Basically, he references how people from different communities had to cooperate with one another despite differences. Modern man doesn't know exactly why differing cultures chose to work out their differences and ultimately work together to create an improved solution, but we do know that they did do so.

Howard then compares that with the open source Internet movement today. In order for humans to continuously progress and move forward we must continually overcome barriers to reach a common goal. Here is Howard Rheingold elaborating in his eye-popping orange suit.

I'm definitely no expert on open-sourcing but I feel as if it still has some glitches to work out before it becomes uncontrollably popular like that of a Justin Beiber or The Kardashians. The positives are that it does work on the basis of collaboration and participation. People enjoy being involved in the process and open-sourcing means that's it's free for its users. On the other hand, open-sourcing doesn't allow for ownership or standardization.


I'm not the most computer savvy person so I don't like the idea of always having to adjust to a new format, new tools and locating items that are now in different places because the open-sourcing has changed once again. I also enjoy having ownership of what I use. That may be a bit of a pet-peeve but it is what it is.


With all that said, I see the Internet adapting more open-sourcing moving forward. I didn't even know that Mozilla Firefox was an open source site until a few days ago. Most people probably don't know which sites are open sourced and which are not. Additionally, I'd argue that most people probably don't even care. That just being because most people don't get into the technical aspects of the Internet. As long as their Facebook and email work people tend to be content.


I'm not buying into yet, but I will more than likely buy into it the more popular it gets. I will buy into it just because I will be forced to do so. To stay current and even ahead of the curve it's key to be aware of where things are heading.