Editing Homesteading the Noosphere

{{Short description|1999 essay by Eric S. Raymond}}
"'''Homesteading the Noosphere'''" (abbreviated '''HtN''') is an [[essay]] written by [[Eric S. Raymond]] about the social workings of [[Open-source software|open-source]] [[software development]]. It follows his previous piece "[[The Cathedral and the Bazaar]]" (1997).

The essay examines issues of [[project]] ownership and transfer, as well as investigating possible [[anthropology|anthropological]] roots of the [[gift culture]] in open source as contrasted with the exchange culture of [[closed source]] software. Raymond also investigates the nature of the spread of open source into the untamed frontier of ideas he terms the [[noosphere]], postulating that projects that range too far ahead of their time fail because they are too far out in the wilderness, and that successful projects tend to relate to existing projects.

Raymond delves into the contrast between the stated aims of open source and observed behaviors, and also explores the underlying motivations of people involved in the [[open source movement|open-source movement]]. He notes that a key motivation for open-source practitioners is their membership of and [[reputation]] within each project's "tribe". In contrast, Microsoft's "embrace and extend" policy complexified and closed up Internet protocols with "protocol pollution."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Raymond|first=Eric|title=The Cathedral and the Bazaar|pages=93–4}}</ref>

== Citations ==

"Homesteading the Noosphere" has been referenced in various papers, including:

* ''The impact of ideology on effectiveness in open source software development teams''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/stewartgosain2.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-07-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701065515/http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/stewartgosain2.pdf |archive-date=2010-07-01 }}</ref><ref>http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/faculty/kstewart/ResearchInfo/StewartGosain-IdeologyinOSS.pdf{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
* ''An Overview of the Software Engineering Process and Tools in the Mozilla Project''<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.async.com.br/~kiko/papers/mozse.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227230408/http://www.async.com.br/~kiko/papers/mozse.pdf |archive-date=2010-12-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''From Planning to Mature: on the Determinants of Open Source Take Off, Discussion paper 2005-17, Università degli Studi di Trento''<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.766024|title=From Planning to Mature: On the Determinants of Open Source Take-Off|year=2007|last1=Manenti|first1=Fabio M.|last2=Comino|first2=Stefano|last3=Parisi|first3=Maria Laura|s2cid=1046928|url=http://eprints.biblio.unitn.it/902/1/17_05_comino.pdf}}</ref>
* ''Open borders? Immigration in open source projects''<ref>{{Cite book | url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1269016 | title=Open Borders? Immigration in Open Source Projects &#124; Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories| date=20 May 2007| page=6| doi=10.1109/MSR.2007.23| isbn=9780769529509| s2cid=636686}}</ref>
* ''Public commons of geographic data: research and development challenges''<ref>{{Cite CiteSeerX |citeseerx = 10.1.1.85.4039|title = Public commons of geographic data: Research and development challenges|year = 2004|pages = 223–238}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==

* In the Japanese novel series ''[[Log Horizon]]'' and its [[manga]] and [[anime]] adaptations, 300,000 Japanese players of a [[massively multiplayer online role-playing game]] suddenly find themselves transported into the game's world right as the game was being updated with an expansion pack by the name of {{nihongo|''Homesteading the Noosphere''|ノウアスフィアの開墾|Nōasufia no Kaikon}}, which the author named after Raymond's essay.<ref>{{Cite tweet |number=409196753624121345 |user=marmalade_macro |title=@Noneuseless その論文はログホラの背景のひとつですね。書かれている、豊かさ、贈与、名誉の考えは、ハッカー文化の最良の部分ですし、それはより広がるべきだと思います。 |author=橙乃 ままれ |author-link=Mamare Touno |date=December 7, 2013 |access-date=December 7, 2013 |language=Japanese}}</ref> The first chapter of the novel series also bears the same name.

== See also ==

* [[Calculation in kind]], also known as a money-free economy

==References==
* {{cite book | author = Eric S. Raymond | title = The Cathedral & the Bazaar | publisher= O'Reilly| chapter = Homesteading the Noosphere | year = 1999 | id = hardcover, October 1999; paperback, January 2001| isbn = 1-56592-724-9 }}  &mdash; also includes "[[The Cathedral and the Bazaar]]", "[[The Magic Cauldron (essay)|The Magic Cauldron]]" and "[[Revenge of the Hackers]]"
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== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/ The essay readable on the web], including a revision-history, 1998–2000.

[[Category:1998 essays]]
[[Category:American essays]]
[[Category:Computer science books]]
[[Category:Books about free software]]
[[Category:Essays about computing]]
[[Category:O'Reilly Media books]]
[[Category:Software development philosophies]]
[[Category:Software engineering papers]]
[[Category:Software project management]]
[[Category:Essays by Eric S. Raymond]]
[[Category:Works about the information economy]]


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