ABSTRACT
Voluntary Distributed Computing is an instance in the transformation of the institution of science, catalyzed by information and communication technologies, and wrought by the individuals who are participating in it. It is happening in parallel to similar changes in the arts, in business, in all fields of human endeavour. Digitalization of information in all fields makes each of those fields accessible and open to manipulation by any networked individual, not just by the long established – and highly protected – institutions of science, or the arts or business. Anyone can be a producer and everyone has potentially something to contribute. Society is moving from an era of dominion of the industrial economy to an era more defined by the information economy. Networks have joined groups and hierarchies as social and organization models (Castells, 1996). The physical and capital barriers to entry of science, business, the arts, that were typical of the industrial economy are greatly reduced if not removed completely. The material means of information production is now available to networked individuals (i.e. individuals connected to the Internet) andthose networked individuals are making up an ever larger poportion of the world’s population. If and when they collaborate and cooperate together, networked individuals can in effect establish a new mode of production, a social mode of production of information (Benkler, 2010) where individuals can produce, coordinate and disseminate information with no physical or capital barrier beyond access to a technological device (typically a PC or mobile phone) that is connected to the Internet.
