As it turns out, I don’t believe I’m the only person in the world to have conceived the concept of an open source organization. Earlier this week, my friend Isaac Holeman pointed me to an article on the Guardian about a development project in Katine, Uganda the paper is trying to open up to the world. By open, they mean having significant media coverage of the entire project, including finances and the decision making process. The project goals include water, health, education, livelihood, and governance.
My quick analysis is two words: too big. While I commend the transparency, I think most observers are interested in getting involved with the project beyond simply donating. Those running the project, or at least the component of the project involved with getting information online, should view themselves as community managers, and not just information providers. The transparency underlying the project creates amazing potential for the project website to be a platform for collaboration. There’s still a lot of work that can be done.