Books on FOSS (was Re: [lbo-talk] Re: Purer Than Thou)

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

On 1/24/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> "Operating systems like Linux in particular, and almost software in
> general, actually are subject to positive network externalities. Call
> it a network good, or an anti-rival good (an awkward, but nicely
> descriptive term). In simpler language, it means that the value of a
> piece of software to any user increases as more people use the
> software on their machines and in their particular settings."
>
> Which makes me wonder...could something like FOSS happen in any other
> economic sector? How many things are like this? Works of art popped
> into my mind, but my enjoyment of Beethoven is unaffected by the
> number of other people enjoying Beethoven, and my enjoyment of an
> obscure indie band might be reduced if their number of fans gets too
> large. So regardless of what one thinks of FOSS itself, is there any
> way it could be generalized as an economic model? I kinda doubt it -
> esp if you're dealing with rival goods, which all goods and most
> services are. And software itself is actually a very small economic
> sector - well under 1% of gross output in the US.

Examples of goods which feature network effects include phones and
financial exchanges.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect>

I suppose one can also observe "network effects" in other fields:
currencies, languages, governments, talking points...

I don't currently see network effects to be such a central concept,
but rather an interesting emergent property. Why would it be central?

Tayssir