I would like to point to a very similar piece that was written about infrastructure for open science [0]. The basic argument is along similar lines, but adds another important wrinkle, which is that in federated systems centralization will eventually arise and often it will be controlled by people and organizations that the federated community do not trust and cannot control (Elsevier being the example in the scholarly world). It is often better to spend time building lasting open institutions that have principles that are in line with the values of the community and are federated at the social level rather than the technical level. Politics matters, and despite how much we might like to avoid it, sometimes we can use it to our advantage.<p>0. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cameronneylon.net&#x2F;blog&#x2F;principles-for-open-scholarly-infrastructures&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cameronneylon.net&#x2F;blog&#x2F;principles-for-open-scholarly-...</a>