Viral Replicability Criteria

Viral Replicability

This is a map of all the criteria required for viral replicability to happen.

What is a comprehensive list of requirements, all of which facilitate replication of the machine?

To do this, start a spreadsheet and begin listing the ecology of requirements and support services - that all contribute to the replication of a given machine. Our case in point for now is the CEB Press.

In order to make this a collaborative document, here is a Form to gather responses.

Feedback Form

Results:

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Infographic and Cultural Mindshift

Based on the information we gather, we will compose an infographic on Viral Replicability Criteria (VRC). The infographic is intended to get people thinking about the potential of open source (hardware) development.

Why is this important?

An implicit premise of the endpoint of any successful open source hardware project is that the quality of the hardware becomes superior to any proprietary counterpart. This is a strong statement, but it is also a simple natural result of an open, collaborative process attracting more development effort than any proprietary, closed-system effort. In other words, a better product means natural dissemination of that product worldwide. But it does not mean homogenization of options as in the standard mass production model, because the affordances of open technology make open hardware flexible and adaptable to any local setting.

We should explore the claim of open development attracting more effort than proprietary efforts. This in general is true, but if appropriate coordination of effort is not secured, then even if more effort is spent, results are not produced. The internet provided a large measure of coordination to open efforts. However, sophisticated mechanisms of Time-Binding are still missing.

Caveat: The market domination of open source product does assume a rational marketplace. This is not generally available - as special interests and agents of centralization tend to monopolize. Solution: It is theorized here that specific aspects of VRC bypass the irrationality of the marketplace. That critical aspect that allows the bypass is the drastically-reduced barriers to entry. It is theorized here that these reduced barriers to entry override the irrationality of the marketplace.

The irrationality of the marketplace is brought about by deprivation, attachment, scarcity, human psychology, social conditioning, fear and anger, secular ponerological and Soteriological factors, and other phenomena.

These factors indeed are grave issues, and may dictate that many people would choose, for example, Coca Cola over organic freeze-dried fruit juices - or, for example, insist that one manufacturer's automobile is fundamentally different from another's.

However, given that 50% of the world lives at under $1000/year of income, there may be a wide market for viral replication.

This does not address viral replicability in the First World. In the first world, lifecycle assessment and environmental issues, combined with 50x lower lifetime costs, and and open enterprise acceleration, just might contribute to viral uptake.

The last point is critical: open hardware accelerators spreading enterprise with minimum effort.