July 11th, 2005
Are we in a real open source war?
At his blog Global Guerillas, John Robb (left) writes that what’s called the War on Terror is actually the first true open source war.
The decentralized, and seemingly chaotic guerrilla war in Iraq demonstrates a pattern that will likely serve as a model for next generation terrorists. This pattern shows a level of learning, activity, and success similar to what we see in the open source software community.
Robb then ticks off similarities between how open source works and today’s evolving terror networks. Terrorists learn from the mistakes of others, and copy others’ successes. They don’t need a centralized structure to be effective.
The result is a war against the very idea of civilization. Every complex civilization will develop complex systems that can be destroyed through the concentrated efforts of small groups. There are so many of these vulnerabilities that not all can be protected. The best protection is consensus, giving everyone a stake in the system.
I think this idea of everyone having a stake, and not the small conspiracies of anarchists, is what open source is all about. I don’t think today’s terrorists know a thing about open source. I think they’re hackers. And if they are hackers, they can be beaten, if their numbers can be kept low by giving everyone a stake in progress.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 07/11/05
