The Magic Cauldron (essay)

"The Magic Cauldron" is an essay by Eric S. Raymond on the open-source economic model. ^[1] It can be read freely online and was published in his 1999 book, The Cathedral and the Bazaar . ^[2]

Contents

The essay analyzes the economic models that Raymond believes can sustain an open-source project in four steps: ^[3]

• It first analyzes what the author sees as classical myths about the cost refund in software development and tries to present a game-theory based model of the supposed stability of open-source cooperation.
• Secondly, it presents nine theoretical models that would work for sustainable open-source development: two non-profit, seven for-profit.
• Thirdly it states a theory to decide when it is economically interesting for software to remain closed.
• Finally, it examines some mechanisms that, according to Raymond, the market invented to fund for-profit open-source development (like patronage system and task markets). ^[4]

Publication

• Raymond, Eric S. (2001). "The Magic Cauldron". The Cathedral and the Bazaar (Paperback ed.). O'Reilly. ISBN   978-0-596-00108-7.
• Raymond, Eric S. (6 November 1999). "The Magic Cauldron" . Retrieved 21 March 2016.

See also

• Revenge of the Hackers

References

1. • Himma, Kenneth E.; Tavani, Herman T., eds. (2008). The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics. Wiley-Interscience. pp. 261–263. ISBN   978-0471799597.
   • "Informationweek, Issues 742-750". InformationWeek (p 75). 1999. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
   • Brian Jepson, Joan Peckham, Ram Sadasiv (2000). Database application programming with Linux. John Wiley. p. 143. ISBN   9780471355496.
   • Fuggetta, Alfonso (2003). "Open source software––an evaluation". Journal of Systems and Software. 66 (1): 85. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.107.9214 . doi:10.1016/S0164-1212(02)00065-1.
2. Baldwin, Carliss Y; Kim Clark (Jul 2006). "The Architecture of Participation: Does Code Architecture Mitigate Free Riding in the Open Source Development Model?". Management Science. 52 (7): 1125. doi:10.1287/mnsc.1060.0546.
3. • Samir Chopra, Scott D. Dexter (2007). Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software. Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture. pp. 21–23. ISBN   978-0415978934.
   • Carmichael, Patrick; Leslie Honour (January 2002). "Open Source as appropriate technology for global education". International Journal of Educational Development. 22 (1): 50. doi:10.1016/S0738-0593(00)00077-8.
4. Bruns, Bryan (2001). "Open sourcing nanotechnology research and development: issues and opportunities". Nanotechnology. 12 (3): 198–210. Bibcode:2001Nanot..12..198B. doi:10.1088/0957-4484/12/3/303. S2CID   250853490.

External links

• Raymond, Eric S. "The Magic Cauldron". The Cathedral and the Bazaar. catb.org. Retrieved 2009-10-14.