The tragedy of the commons phenomenon is a foundational topic to cover when discussing publicized assets and open source.
The core tenet of the tragedy of the commons states that when given access to public assets, individuals will primarily behave in a self-serving manner to exploit the resource for selfish gain at the expense of everyone else. This abuse leads to over-consumption, thereby depleting the resource with no regard for the consequences this has on anyone else.
It is important to acknowledge that the tragedy of the commons is real and provides valuable wisdom. Abusing public resources can be seen in scenarios like herders overgrazing on public land, which leads to the destruction of natural biodiversity. Fishermen overfishing can lead to the extinction of certain species and the eradication of natural predators that would otherwise manage the population of other invasive species. It is true that bad actors who exploit public resources for themselves will always exist, but this does not mean that we should live in fear. These abuses can be prevented, and turning over public resources to private control will never automatically fix all the problems faced when they were public.
Join me as we unravel misconceptions about the tragedy of the commons phenomenon and how it relates to the open-source movement.
Misconceptions and Criticisms
The tragedy of the commons is typically used to conclude that the public cannot be trusted to take care of public resources. Therefore, the solution to this issue must be to turn over control and ownership of these public assets to private hands. This logic is flawed because it grossly oversimplifies human behavior and ignores cultural, social, and institutional factors that prevent the tragedy.
There are countless real-world examples that clearly disprove the purely selfish nature that the tragedy of the commons phenomenon portrays human behavior to be. I will share some personal ones with you below and then expand into covering examples in the digital space that shatter the phenomenon’s flawed logic.
Personal Example – New England Lobster Fisheries
I come from New England, where lobster fishing is all the rage. Maine lobster fisheries have done and continue to do a fantastic job at self-policing against the overfishing of lobsters. They have an entire mechanism for identifying and tagging fertile male and female lobsters, which are protected and released if caught. The local community in Maine has come together on their own accord to protect their public resources—the water and lobsters—from pollution and overfishing.
This grassroots community self-policing consists primarily of fishermen, fisheries, and local universities that track the behavioral patterns of lobsters and other marine life. They report bad actors to law enforcement and have a running Brady list for such bad actors, where fisheries refuse to do business with them and grocery stores refuse to buy from them. This self-policing is so successful that there is even a popular YouTube channel that creates vlogs about what it’s like being out on the Maine waters. YouTuber Jacob Knowles has almost 2 million subscribers and is a fifth-generation lobster fisherman from Maine. His footage, which gets hundreds of thousands of views per video, is a testament to how much Maine residents respect and care for their public resources. It shows that even large public assets like bodies of water and wildlife can be effectively managed to prevent bad actors from exploiting them for themselves.
Personal Example – Public Park
Growing up, I played lots of sports and joined the sports teams for my school and city. One of my favorite sports was soccer and I loved played on this one particular field. It was a beautiful, well-kept natural grass field that was publicly accessible. In my free time, I would frequently visit the field to hang out with friends and practice or just get a good workout in. The best part of this field was that it had fully functional hardwired bathroom facilities in a separate building right next to the field. In all my years of playing on that field, there was never any crime, the field was always well taken care of, and families would frequently take their children there to play.
Most of the people in my hometown work in the skilled trades. Many of them happen to be landscapers. When the grass got too tall, locals would typically mow the grass themselves because they wanted their children to enjoy the area. When patches of grass got dry and destroyed from soccer cleats, locals would buy mulch and grass seeds on their own accord to repair the field because they wanted their children to enjoy the field.
The field was also in full view of all nearby residents. Adults were constantly supervising the field—their homes were literally right next to the field with a direct line of sight. Littering was not an issue—the school teams and the rest of the public always cleaned up after themselves, and in the rare case when there were leftovers, the public would quickly clean it up.
I recently learned that this field was sold off to a giant telecommunications company in a behind-closed-doors sweetheart deal to Charter Communications (also known by consumers as Spectrum) because city officials got greedy, and the telco company wanted public recognition locally, thus concocting a scheme to earn more money from taxpayers. If you didn’t hate telecommunications companies already, you will now. Charter purchased the field, and the city entered into a deal where public school teams can still play on it for free only during their seasonally scheduled games, but the rest of the public must pay to access the field.
An ugly 15-foot-tall fence now surrounds the field, blocking access. The natural grassland was ripped apart and replaced with turf material, which is known to be extremely toxic and very costly to maintain. Precision, industrial-grade cameras were installed on every corner of the field, along with a ridiculous amount of overpowered floodlights to light up a field that now maybe gets used once a week during the school year.
In order to access the field, the public needs to pay the city and a private security company to rent it out, with a minimum of 2 hours of rental time required. Last I checked, the hourly rate is $200/hr, plus a mandatory one-time fee for the Department of Public Works to pay a security company to come unlock the gates.
The parking lot where my brother first learned how to ride his bike now bars the public from walking on it under threat of trespassing and arrest. It too is under strict camera supervision. An entire generation of children will now grow up without access to the same public park that their parents and grandparents enjoyed because a private bad actor wanted to exploit public assets for themselves.
Everyday Example – Public Gym
On a more benign level, we can see this self-policing to protect public assets by the way people clean up after using the gym equipment at public recreational centers. In most of the public gyms that I have attended, regardless of the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood, I have always seen local residents pay respect to the facilities. They wipe down equipment after using it, re-rack weights, and tidy up a room after hosting an event. The mutual understanding is clear—if we do not take care of this space, we will all lose it, and nobody wants that, especially in neighborhoods where residents may not have the financial means to easily travel to other parks. Residents also understand that without these public facilities, there would be no other options for them to spend recreational free time. These facilities also serve as safe spaces and even outlets for teenagers who may not have access to the internet at home. I know because I was one of these kids.
Private Control Over Public Assets
To summarize the flawed logic of the tragedy of the commons phenomenon, lawmakers and skeptics argue that public assets are better managed under private control. Unfortunately, none of these critics ever demonstrate exactly why transitioning ownership to private hands automatically fixes the stewardship issues faced under public ownership. The reality is that those same problems exist regardless of public or private ownership. There will always be a need to manage bad actors who wish to exploit resources for personal gain. It has been proven time and time again that local communities are far superior at preventing such tragedies when left to their own devices by establishing cultural norms and boundaries that are reinforced through generations. It costs the local community, private businesses, and the public at large much less to do so on their own compared to privately held alternatives.
The bigger problem is when public assets succumb to private ownership and control. Private owners have no incentive to be good stewards of the asset. In fact, most of the time, private owners magnify the effects of the tragedy of the commons exponentially. Private owners are not beholden to the stakeholders that rely on those assets and have every incentive to exploit the assets for personal gain, even if the benefits are short-lived. They move on to the next asset to exploit for short-term gain, rinse, and repeat.
Open Source and the Tragedy of the Commons
Local residents have their lives directly impacted by public assets, which is why they make the best stewards of said assets. It is in their best interest to prevent tragedies if they wish to continue using the assets sustainably because their well-being and livelihoods are at stake. Their free labor keeps the cost of maintenance, policing, and adjudication low because there are few tragedies that occur from their constant watch and toil.
This same outcome can be seen in the realm of hardware and software systems. Open-source projects like the Linux operating system have proven that open-source projects are far superior when it comes to security, maintenance cost, new feature development costs, long-term sustainability costs, and provide much richer functionality and flexibility than their closed-source counterparts. They accomplish these feats through economies of scale, and this time around, community members are not restricted by physical borders.
People from all over the world keep a watchful eye on the project and in return, they get a technological asset to solve problems in their personal lives as well as making their businesses run better without having to invest in major capital expenditures upfront. More importantly, the public gets transparency into the operation of the asset to ensure it doesn’t encroach on their right to privacy and empowers their consumer rights to truly own the things they spend money on.
Another example of an open-source project defeating the tragedy of the commons is OpenStreetMap, which is used by countless environmental researchers to track animal behavior patterns, by civil engineers to develop optimal roadways, and by historians to track changes to the land which helps to supplement other geological records.
Without these open-source projects, and many others, individuals and businesses would be left to raise capital investment on their own to meet a need that is universal. Their project would subsequently suffer from a lack of security resilience and robustness because they would only have themselves to rely on to harden against a multitude of attack vectors, a task that is absolutely impossible. Furthermore, the development of a digital project (hardware and software) can satisfy the needs of many people far better when other stakeholders suffering from the same issue can publicly and directly provide input. This decentralized and democratic approach of soliciting feedback leads to a project that more aptly meets the needs of stakeholders compared to a closed-source one.
Summary
The tragedy of the commons is a real phenomenon that highlights the potential for overuse and depletion of shared resources when individuals act in their own self-interest. However, this concept does not imply that all public assets are doomed to be mismanaged. As seen in various real-world examples, such as the Maine lobster fisheries and well-maintained public parks, communities can effectively manage shared resources through self-policing, community involvement, and the establishment of cultural norms.
Open-source projects like Linux and OpenStreetMap further challenge the notion that communal resources are inherently prone to failure. These projects thrive on global collaboration, transparency, and decentralized management, proving that when stakeholders are directly involved and invested in the success of a shared resource, the outcomes can be highly sustainable and beneficial to all.
The key takeaway is that the success of both physical commons and digital open-source projects lies in active community engagement and decentralized control. By fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility among users, communities can develop resilient systems that prevent the tragedy of the commons and ensure long-term sustainability. This approach addresses the potential pitfalls highlighted by the tragedy of the commons and leverages collective wisdom and effort to create robust, adaptable, and thriving public assets.
Check out the following YouTube link for a video episode I did on this topic "Open Source And The Tragedy Of The Commons" .
Thanks and I'll see you in the next one.
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DISCLAIMER: I am not sponsored or influenced in any way, shape, or form by the companies and products mentioned. This is my own original content, with image credits given as appropriate and necessary.
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