"equipotentiality"

Anybody else wondering what equipotentiality is? Axel Bruns refers to it in this weeks reading as well as on produsage.org. I was curious so I googled it...
ALAS! Wikipedia was not very helpful on the matter this time round, and google didn't turn up much. I went a little further and searched for Michel Bauwens (who Axel attributes the concept to) who advocates, explores, and documents peer-to-peer practices.
I'm still not very clear about what EQUIPOTENTIALITY means, but as far as I can gather in the context Axel uses it, it is best understood as the opposite of credentiality. It relates back to peer-to-peer production, open source software, and produsage in that equipotentiality is the "process of allowing for self-selection of participants, followed by communcal validation, followed by open access... a priori decision to open participation to anyone that has the potential to have the right skills, rather than to anyone with credetials" (see here).

For further interest here are some fellow bloggers who have showed an interest in this concept and related theories:

Richard Poynder
Sam Rose
Intergral Visioning


Reference

Bruns, A. 2008. Open Source Software Development: Probabilistic Eyeballs in Bruns, A. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, New York: Peter Lang, pp.37-68.

How is open source different from commercial production?

In open source the source code is freely and openly available for everyone to view, edit and use, within a limited-rights licence. For example: FireFox and Linux. In the closed source, commercial model, source code remains confidential and must be bought by the end user. For example, the average user cannot access the source code for Windows Internet Explorer; only the in-house software developers are allowed access. The business model for open source software is to provide services to the commmunity, where as closed source's aim is to sell a finished product. The success of open source hinges on the active contribution and interest of users. In contrast, the motivations for the success of closed source production is the fiscal benefit to the commercial production team.

Open source is an example of produsage. Axel Bruns has idenitified three fundamental principles that define the term produsage:

1. Open participation and communal evaluation. Open source software is an example of this because the project is open for anybody to make contributions and evaluate and test its usability, a key feature of web 2.0. The software is continually updated through collaborative participation and new updates are available almost everyday (Bruns, 2008, p42). In contrast, closed source epitomises web 1.0 where users had no ability to contribute to software development. The availability of new closed source software is stagnant and relies on set release dates for 'new editions'.

2. Fluid Heterarchy, ad hoc meritocracy. In open source contributors grow in the community through their esteem and influence on the project. There is no set dictator for the duration of the project. Leaders are fluid and ever changing according to their abilities and the merit of their contributions. In closed source the production development team is subject to traditional hierarchical structures. There is an appointed leader for the duration of the project and each employee has set individual tasks to complete.

3. Unfinished artefacts, continuing process. In open source the project is always under development, continually evolving with no set end date. Whereas commercial production aims at delivering a complete package to meet a set deadline.

By Emma, Ella and Nat.


Reference

Bruns, A. 2008. Open Source Software Development: Probabilistic Eyeballs in Bruns, A. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, New York: Peter Lang, pp.37-68.