The Well-Field System: How China Pioneered Open Source 30 Centuries Ago

Nicolas Pujol

Pujol Enterprises LLC

Vadim Rossman

International College of Sustainability Studies

November 12, 2011

Abstract:     
As we observe business models that have been around for a few decades, history can give us clues from past implementations that closely resemble the present. When seeking similarities before seeking differences, few things if any are new.

The conventional timeline of open source often revolves around its etymology and start as a software movement in the twentieth century. While anecdotal evidence recalls kitchen recipes that have been shared at no cost since the beginning of civilization, no formal system has stood in between, where a private economy organizes shared and discrete resources. None except for a concept invented by Chinese philosophers in the 9th century BCE called the Well-field System. The latter, in essence, operates in many ways as what we call today an open source system.

The findings matter for historical and for epistemological reasons. The view of open source as a system branches out to domains unrelated to software when studying past business practices of the Well field System, in a similar fashion as open source is branching out in the twenty first century into domains of science, education and beyond. Open source, in a broad sense, is a philosophy of organizing monetary and non-monetary, shared resources within a private economy. It is more than a license to intellectual property.

We decided to use criteria for connecting the systems as the requirement of a somewhat private economy, the presence of shared resources and the latter’s ability to feed (improve) privately owned businesses on the periphery. We acknowledge the differences in licensing, possibly in societal goals, although such goals are different for each business using open source today.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 9

Working Paper Series

I believe that librarians must be political. That is they must be aware of politics, aid their members in political pursuits, and actively participate in the political process. Now directors of libraries will see this as nothing new, but I believe that all librarians must be politically savvy. Why? Well, let’s start with my definition of politics: politics is the process by which a community allocates power and resources.