Thanks to Confused of Calcutta for pointing me here.  This is the most eloquent description of Open Source I have seen.  It also happens to apply beautifully to net neutrality too.  If the telcoms meet their objective, the water example is precisely how internet will work, and that’s not good! 

The issue with net neutrality, and open source is not economic, it is cultural.  The cultural benefits are too great to let them disappear.  And from that cultural improvement and greatness will spring even greater economic benefits than could ever have otherwise occurred. 

Joe quotes Doc Searls speaking about software vendors being stuck in an old model, and not realising the benefits that could be achieved. The challenge there is that software companies are coders, and thats all they know.  This will require leadership from Microsoft, Google, and others to change that paradigm.

Because of open source at FactoryCity

Think about it this way: if the water that’s piped into your house had DRM on it and only allowed you to use it for showers, how would you wash your clothes? If you were only allowed to make ice cubes, how would you make iced tea? If you had to pay $0.99 everytime you wanted a glass of water?

Ideas and hope need to flow like water if a civilization is to continue
its ascension toward greatness. Impediments to that flow will stall
growth. Fortunately, like a solvent, the culture of open source will
continue to expand, will wear away at these impediments, to restore the
natural flow of social capital, of ideas, of hope. Those who get this
first will rise, and rise quickly.