Governance of Volunteer-Driven Open Resource Communities

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Typology

Stephen Downes:

In volunteer-driven open resource communities, two major models of organization have developed: the Emergent Model and the Community Model. (Foote, 2005)

Community Model

  • Reputation is a natural outgrowth of human interactions
  • Users are powerful, must be respected

Emergent Model

  • Need reputation mechanisms like Ebay, Slashdot
  • Users are tiny, have no power (except in the aggregate)

These systems, thought of in combination, could be thought of as forming an Ecosystem Model (Stephenson, 2005) where "those creating, using and improving open content form an ecosystem." (http://www.downes.ca/files/FreeLearning.pdf)