Nomadic strategies in the network society: From Lawrence of Arabia to Linux

SummaryThis paper develops the concept of nomadic strategy and how this concept explains the growing success of communities such as the Linux open source movement. These poorly resourced groups tend to adopt strategies that have remarkable similarities with guerrilla or nomadic tactics, especially in the software and music business. Rather than erecting barriers to entry, these strategies attempt to exploit the nomadic tendencies of information. This paper develops a set of theoretical principles for nomadic strategy and shows how the Linux community has successfully exploited them.