Open source warfare is in the process of revolutionizing war by enabling communities of small autonomous groups to successfully fight much larger foes. In the initial tests of the method (i.e. the Spanish Civil War of our time: Iraq), open source insurgents were able to fight the most powerful military ever fielded to a standstill for years. It will only get more effective from here on out as the method evolves, technology roars forward, and traditional militaries like the US become husks of their former selves (due to a lack of funding and political divisiveness).

The effectiveness of open source warfare might also apply to another area of intense competition: economics. Simply, would it be possible for a community of small groups and/or a plethora of individuals within an open source economy to decisively outcompete the dominant global system? I'm pretty sure the answer to that question is an unqualified yes. An open source economy, a place where ideas are free from ownership, would gain a decisive competitive advantage over a traditional economy very quickly.

Here's one reason why (I'll be adding many more detail, analysis, and synthesis to this line of thinking soon). In short, open source economies would have a rate of innovation far in excess of traditional economies due to the speed at which innovation percolates through the system. With each successive cycle, innovation upon innovation, the process accelerates until dominance is achieved.

Let's use an extreme and idealized example of a near term future to demonstrate the point. There are one million people in the open source economy. Each person has a desktop manufacturing device and a high speed connection to everyone else in the community. A couple people develop an idea , or more specifically a design, for a simple set of devices (circuit boards + housing + wireless comms) that intelligently manages a home's electricity usage for a savings of 25%. In the open source economy, that idea is freely shared. It is then copied, in a growing cascade, by nearly everyone that can use it. They all print the device and deploy it into their home. Within weeks/months of the idea's release nearly all 1 million homes of the economy's network are saving 25% off of their electricity bill for only the cost of the smattering of materials required to build it. Within a month or two of that initial release, another innovation on the innovation arrives, that shaves 35% off of the cost of the electricity. The wave continues, on and on. Each step results in full societal benefit, since the full savings for each member that installs it can be applied to other activities (all boats rise).