Open Sourcing Social Change: Inside the Constellation Model

Today an article that Mark Surman and I wrote has been published in the Open Source Business Review. You can find it at...  http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/698/666 Once again, Mark and I are taking a kick at the can to understand the merging of open source, collaboration and social change. It is really a reworking of an earlier article that I did describing how the Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment built and used the Constellation Model to help bring about huge changes to the way that Canada manages toxic chemicals.   It has been very interesting to examine how open source thinking runs in parallel to organizational development and network thinking. The article attempts to dig into where the similarities are and where they aren't. Some of the elements that the constellation model shares with open source include:

1. Action teams come together to achieve a goal based on mutual self interest where the balance between community and self drives peer production.
2. Clear but lightweight coordination structures ensure that individual and organizational energies align towards achieving the greater goal.
3. Meritocracy is balanced with inclusion as the best ideas and approaches rise to the top and are strengthened by the expertise of the community.
4. Individuals and groups get in or out at any time based on their own interests and needs.
5. Leadership and community health are valued.

The main differences are:

1. The constellation model focuses on promoting social values while the open source model focuses on digital assets that can be distributed under open source licenses.
2. The lack of focus on digital assets means it is not easy to fork a team. The right to fork is not only missing, it would be antithetical to the need to coordinate activities towards the magnetic attractor.
3. The constellation model draws teams from partner organizations in an ecosystem while the open source model draws individuals from anywhere.

The links between open source thinking and the constellation model are not accidental. In fact, they were quite intentional. The constellation model intentionally drew on the practices of open source from its inception. The Centre for Social Innovation also draws on open source thinking and complexity theory heavily in its design.... but I haven't quite found time to write about that one yet. CheersTonya