Free software is a gift economy

Not sure I agree with this claim or not. [[I like free software]] and [[I like gift economies]] so I'd be fine if it was a good one.

But part of me feels like it's actually more communist (from each according to their ability, to each according to their need). [[Gift economies]] as I understand it have some expectation of (delayed) reciprocity that I'm not sure exists in free software.

Note that this doesn't necessary claim that free software is exclusively a gift economy. Different projects could be different types of exchange systems.

See

• [[The Hi-Tech Gift Economy]]
• [[Maggie Appleton on Open Source as a Gift Economy]]
• Participation in the open source gift economy –

for some places to possibly dig in to this.

Epistemic status

Type : [[claim]]

Gut feeling : 4

Confidence : 2