Stigmergic's a good thing, right? Open source software meets the academy

If words this large are used to describe it, open source free software has to be good (sigmergic pretty much means "marked work"):

To appear in: B. Lutterbeck, M. Ba?rwolff & R. A. Gehring (eds.), Open Source Jahrbuch
2007, Lehmanns Media, 2007

Why is Open Access Development so Successful?
Stigmergic organization and the economics of
information
Francis Heylighen

ECCO, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
http://pcp.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html

Abstract: The explosive development of “free” or “open source” information goods contravenes the conventional wisdom that markets and commercial organizations are necessary to efficiently supply products. This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon, using concepts from economics and theories of self-organization. Once available on the Internet, information is intrinsically not a scarce good, as it can be replicated virtually without cost.

Moreover, freely distributing information is profitable to its creator, since it improves the quality of the information, and enhances the creator’s reputation.

This provides a sufficient incentive for people to contribute to open access projects. Unlike traditional organizations, open access communities are open, distributed and self-organizing. Coordination is achieved through stigmergy: listings of “work-in-progress” direct potential contributors to the tasks where their contribution is most likely to be fruitful. This obviates the need both for centralized planning and for the “invisible hand” of the market.