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The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary
by Eric S. Raymond, Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly 1999. 288p. $19.95 (ISBN 156592-724-9)
This short essay examines, in the guise of a book review, the concept of a "gift culture" and how it may or may not be related to librarianship. As a result of this examination, and with a few qualifications, I believe my judgements about open source software and librarianship are true: open source software development and librarianship have a number of similarities-both are examples of gift cultures.
I have recently read a book about open source software development by Eric Raymond. The Cathedral & the Bazaar describes the environment of free software and tries to explain why some programmers are willing to give away the products of their labors. It describes the "hacker milieu" as a "gift culture":
Gift cultures are adaptations not to scarcity but to abundance. They arise in populations that do not have significant material scarcity problems with survival goods. We can observe gift cultures in action among aboriginal cultures living in ecozones with mild climates and abundant food. We can also observe them in certain strata of our own society, especially in show business and among the very wealthy.1
Raymond alludes to the definition of "gift cultures," but not enough to satisfy my curiosity. Being the good librarian, I was off to the reference department for more specific answers. More often than not, I found information about "gift exchange" and "gift economies" as opposed to "gift cultures." (Yes, I did look on the Internet but found little.)
Probably one of the earliest and more comprehensive studies of gift exchange was written by Marcell Mauss.2 In his analysis he says gifts, with their three obligations of giving, receiving, and repaying, are in aspects of almost all societies. The process of gift giving strengthens cooperation, competitiveness, and antagonism. It reveals itself in religious, legal, moral, economic, aesthetic, morphological, and mythological aspects of life.3
As Gregory states, for the industrial capitalist economies, gifts are nothing but presents or things given, and "that is all that needs to be said on the matter." Ironically for economists, gifts have value and consequently have implications for commodity exchange.4 He goes...