This is just brilliant. Business Innovation 2005 points to this article by Jeff Vail on open source as an emergent innovation strategy that manifests ideally in a network economy. Key quote:

The polar opposite of the structure of hierarchy is rhizome, a network of independent and interconnected nodes. As a system with far less hierarchy than our current system, is there also a great potential for open-source innovation in rhizome? Ultimately, can a rhizome structure create the same system of rewards that likely leads to innovation in our capitalist, ownership-based society? The short answer: no. However, rhizome has demonstrated its ability to spark innovation as rapid or more rapid than ownership-based capitalism—the difference, however, is a fundamental one: rhizome innovation is not achieved by one or many individuals, but is rather an emergent phenomenon of their collective interaction. This is a fundamental difference, for not only is rhizome innovation not dependent on an ownership-system, it is also fundamentally impossible to be owned.

As we live and participate in an economy that is more and more of a network, and hence is more and more about connecting autonomous pieces and distributing information as fast and widely as possible, open source becomes a very real means of production and innovation. As such, firms that position themselves strategically within open source networks stand to reap significant benefits from their innovation.

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