The Simple Economics of Open Source

[Christopher Browne]

Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw a time when Albert Wagner would say:
>Raffael Cavallaro wrote:
>> 
><snip>
>> I think that many open source advocates have
>> failed to apply simple logic to the economics of open source, believing
>> that somehow, the internet, or software, is immune from simple laws of
>> supply and demand. They are not.
>> 
>I am going to have to go back and reread all of your previous posts. 
>You seem to be rebutting a point that was never made.  Of course, Open
>Source software is not immune to the laws of supply and demand.  Who
>said it was?  It is in response to those laws that it is free.  But free
>only in the world of economics where dollar worth is all that matters.
>It is this very world, where the only motivation taken into account is
>money profit, that Open Source has escaped.  And the escape has been
>dazzling.  

_Economics_ is not the study of money.

_Finance theory_ is the study of money.

Economics, in contrast, has to do with the study of the allocation of
resources.

The theory generally regards the allocation of _scarce_ resources.

It is entirely common for the basic "denomination" to be treated as
money, but the analytical tools economics provides are equally
applicable when the "coin of the realm" is the _time developers spend_
as it is when the "coin" represents dollars and cents.
-- 
Rule of Scarcity
"If it's not allocated by a market, then it's more expensive than
money."
-- Mark Miller
cbbrowne at ntlug.org- <http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/lsf.html>