thesis

Theoretical Foundations 67
possible solution to the negative quantitative effect of closure on potential contributors
might lie in multiple access layers, in liberal and flexible norms.
A further approach to address the negative quantitative effect of closure on potential
contributors is to discuss the core assumptions of peer production theory. Peer
production is a viable production model as: social value is created in quantities and
qualities unmatched by other modes of production, superior knowledge creation is
enabled by free access to information and by contribution of persons from different
provenance, and they are then free to experiment due to the lack of managerial,
hierarchical specifications. While peer production has a strong normative societal
impact, it also manages to deliver results. Simplified, the assumed superior or at
least competitive product quality is the result of a large number of voluntary contributors
combined with a high degree of openness of information and low investment
costs for contributors. From the angle of the end result of the production
process, the number of potential contributors is not the decisive variable. The key
criterion is the number of those actually contributing and the value of their respective
contributions. A community that needs to close itself off could invent governance
mechanisms and techniques that enable it to accurately identify valuable
potential contributors. Simplified, the product quality would then be the result of
the assumed likelihood of contribution, the number of potential contributors and
the value of individual contributions. Hence, likelihood and value can make up for
less potential contributors. If a community thus manages to bring in talents willing
to contribute, if it is opened to a substantial number of potential contributors, it
might be able to compensate for the losses of excluding a large number of potential
contributors.
So much for the theorising about collaborative, distributed production under secrecy.
The degree of secrecy required in reality, the impact on the production process,
possibly governance techniques to mitigate the negative effects of secrecy on effectivity
and costs of production — all of that might look entirely different from that
which has been envisaged here. An exploratory journey into the world of Internet
security production is to shed more light on these questions.
2.4 Peer production of Internet security
The rise of the Internet has nurtured a fascinating trend towards geographically
distributed, self-organised collaboration driven mainly by individual persons. The
poster-child of this new type of organisation in the production of informational
goods has been free and open source software projects. Peer production and open