Speaker(s): Lee Fleming (HBS)
Title:
Why
did this Finnish hacker become "Leader of the Free World" (not to
mention a high tech multi-millionaire, without gainful employment or investment
of a single Markka)? More generally, what qualities identify future leaders of
open innovation communities? We develop an answer based on interviews,
observation, and archival reviews of various open communities, including Linux,
Debian, and the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). While future leaders
must first contribute technically, their structural position within the
community also has a crucial influence. Because open communities rely upon
ubiquitous and transparent information flow and are afraid of
"splitting" and "Trojan Horses," (malicious commercial
interests that hijack development or intentionally plant bugs) they remain very
suspicious of robust political action. As
a result, politically capable structural brokers are less likely to become
leaders. The liability of brokerage
can be overcome, however, with the reassurance of commitment and contribution
within the community. We find
strong evidence for our arguments from a 16 year dataset of 15,000 engineers of
the IETF.
