Mark Preston wrote:
I wonder if you would care to expand on what Raymond is ignorant of
regarding building cathedrals and operating bazaars, and why the
"Cathedral and Bazaar" allegory wrt free software is by implication
flawed. Having only bought things in Bazaars, and only visited a few
Cathedrals my ignorance in this area is quite broad.
Raymond presents cathedrals as monolithic and bazaars as freewheeling.
Mediaeval Cathedrals were often multi-generational projects with each
generation building on the work of the last. They are a framework within
which people could do something amazing, architecturally speaking. A
strong sense of purpose and a supportive framework can work wonders for
individual talent.
Bazaars occupy a specific social space and are regulated by set rules.
Everyone knows how to haggle.
The C&B allegory is flawed because Raymond has started from a mild
dislike of GNU cut with too much Ayn Rand and created a metaphor that,
although easy to understand, discards too much information. And the
market needs information to work efficiently. ;-)
- Rob.
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