The Dilemma of Distributed Organizing

Abstract

Modern information technology has a severe impact on the way we organize. For example, there is a huge debate about intellectual property in the world currently. On the one hand, media companies are found guilty to achieve immense profit while demonizing users sharing their products. On the other hand, producers of such media products fight for their fair share and for digital copyright mechanisms and enforcement. The main problem in this argument is not one of capitalists versus socialists as it is sometimes put. This dualistic picture of the situation certainly puts the frame too tight. It is much more a discrepancy between people believing in bureaucratic organizations as a good means to achieve coordinated outcome and create value on the one hand, and people believing in the power of the individual and the coordinating abilities of networked technologies and communities on the other.