The debate over open and closed systems is one of the main themes of The Pirate’s Dilemma, and all over the place this question is coming up. Is open source better than proprietary? Is software property, or information? Is our DNA property, or information? It’s a big question, with a lot of different answers.

In the fight against terrorism, citizens are being told they need to reveal all sorts of private information, which is proving more than a little controversial. But the industries and organizations whose job it is to protect intelligence and secrets could benefit greatly from opening up to the right communities. The New York Times ran an article in December 2006 suggesting spying need to go open source, claiming US intelligence agencies were relying on search engines that were “a pale shadow of Google.” The CIA, NSA and FBI lacked the ability to share information with each other instantly, because the agencies, as The New York Times reported, “had created their online networks specifically to keep secrets safe, locked away so only a few could see them. This control over the flow of information, as the 9/11 Commission noted in its final report, was a crucial reason American intelligence agencies failed to prevent those attacks.”

After 9/11, emergency workers and businesses trying to get back on their feet in lower Manhattan found themselves relying on an invisible cloud of free Wi-Fi networks while broadband internet connections and phone lines were down. Within the first two weeks of Hurricane Katrina hitting in 2005, community Wi-Fi systems were set up so that relatives could find each other with sites like peoplefinder.com, or find temporary accommodation through katrinahousing.org, which connected refugees to people with spare beds and couches. As Steven Johnson observed in Discover magazine, “The people at the forefront of these efforts had no professional disaster experience. All they had was technical expertise and access to a vast network of people willing to volunteer time, provide shelter, or donate equipment… In the war on error, they are the true first responders.”