Open Source as a Complex Adaptive System

The concepts of complexity prevalent at various historical times have influenced the frames of mind with which organizations and the models of social planning and organizational design have been analyzed. During the Industrial Revolution, the model of organizational design derived from the conceptual model of the machine. In this model, the concept of the hierarchical control of functions prevailed. The consequent approach was top-down thinking. Much of the organizational theory of the twentieth century was based on determinism, reductionism, and equilibrium as key principles. If an organization is conceived of as a machine, the control of the organization is obtained through a reduction in its complexity; that is, in the states of the machine or its variety. The Information Revolution and the development of networks have produced phenomena such as the growing connection between elements that are often extremely different from one another (computers, people, even smart objects). This has led to phenomena that cannot be planned according to a top-down logic, but, on the contrary, “emerge” from interactions between elements and therefore “from the bottom.” The approach most suitable for analyzing these phenomena is bottom-up thinking. If in the past the world could be represented as a machine, today it is represented as a network and increasingly as an ecosystem. The Internet, for example, can be considered not only as a technological infrastructure and a social practice, but also as a new way of thinking related to the concepts of freedom of access and diffusion of knowledge. Furthermore, the