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It seems like your usage of the word "institution" in the general sense is just a group of "committed individuals" perhaps with documentation in place for knowl

• fredley 9y ago
  Yes, basically an institution is a long-lived collection of people, with at least some parts of it with extremely slow turnover of people. This is where the deep knowledge lives that can sustain large projects. An institution also implies to some extent a culture too - a set of shared practices unique to that group that foster a (hopefully) good environment for the project to develop. It is interesting to note that, broadly speaking, the world is becoming de-institutionalised. Talk to any older academic, engineer, doctor, etc., and they'll tell you that less and less people are interested in settling into a job for the long-term - for maybe their entire careers. The gig economy is one end of the scale, but it's happening across the board, and it's having many detrimental side-effects (talk to any older academic, engineer, doctor, etc.). Many of the more successful software companies today foster an institutional environment - one with a strong identifying culture, making it a more difficult place to leave (e.g. Google).