Or: Many Small Dictatorships over One Governance Orgy Or: Social interaction as International law --- See: [[Bryan Cantrill - Fork Yeah - IllumOS#BDFL model as the only thing in software that ever works]] starting at 5:22 for background on why this is the only model that ever really works in software development. --- When it comes to countries and politics, if we're forced to choose between: - One Dictatorship for N people. - One Democracy for N people. we all understand that democracy is better. Surprisingly, many of the best open source projects follow the "Benevolent Dictator for Life" model. In this model, anyone is free to fork the code and change it, and there is no legally mandated "master" version enforced by any top-down process. Nevertheless, a master version is chosen bottom-up, vountarily, with a community organizing organically around a single version agreed to be primary. This is usually the version of the code base's founder: whoever wrote the original POC. But if the original author neglects the project, a new leader is elected organically, not through formal votes but by the community voting with their feet. The end result is that in a surprisingly large number of the most successful open source projects, there is often one person -- not a democratic team -- who has the ultimate say in the end over whether any change is made. The dictatorship gives direction. The ease of forking and leaving is what makes this dynamic so different from the oppressive dictatorships that govern countries. Good leaders are the ones who learn to delegate to people they trust. Any dictator can be overthrown overnight without deposing him from the project. He simply wakes up to find the community has gone elsewhere. In open source, the choice is not between: - One Dictatorship for N people. - One Democracy for N people. The choice is between - N Dictatorships of One person. - One Democracy of N people. In a world where any nation can be effortlessly forked, and refugees can flee a bad leader with the click of a button, a single Democracy of N is beaten hands down by many Dictatorships of One, with free association, where all cooperation is voluntary, based on each person making decisions about who they enjoy working with.