‘Open source has won and lost the war’: Legitimising commercial–communal hybridisation in a FOSS project

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482090702
Author(s):  
Mathieu O’Neil ◽  
Laure Muselli ◽  
Mahin Raissi ◽  
Stefano Zacchiroli
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Work Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Phase ◽  
Fair Distribution ◽  
Hybrid Forms

Information technology (IT) firms are paying developers in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects, leading to the emergence of hybrid forms of work. In order to understand how the firm–project hybridisation process occurs, we present the results of an online survey of participants in the Debian project, as well as interviews with Debian Developers. We find that the intermingling of the commercial logic of the firm and the communal logic of the project requires rhetorical legitimation. We analyse the discourses used to legitimise firm–project cooperation as well as the organisational mechanisms which facilitate this cooperation. A first phase of legitimation, based on firm adoption of open licenses and developer self-fulfilment, aims to erase the commercial/communal divide. A second more recent phase seeks to professionalise work relations inside the project and, in doing so, challenges the social order which restricts participation in FOSS. Ultimately, hybridisation raises the question of the fair distribution of the profits firms derive from FOSS.

scholarly journals The Social Order of Open Source Software Production

2011 ◽  
pp. 168-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen Gläser
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Social Mechanism ◽  
Complete Uncertainty ◽  
Software Production ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Production

This chapter contributes to the sociological understanding of open source software (OSS) production by identifying the social mechanism that creates social order in OSS communities. OSS communities are identified as production communities whose mode of production employs autonomous decentralized decision making on contributions and autonomous production of contributions while maintaining the necessary order by adjustment to the common subject matter of work. Thus, OSS communities belong to the same type of collective production system as scientific communities. Both consist of members who not only work on a common product, but are also aware of this collective work and adjust their actions accordingly. Membership is based on the self-perception of working with the community’s subject matter (software or respectively scientific knowledge). The major differences between the two are due to the different subject matters of work. Production communities are compared to the previously known collective production systems, namely, markets, organizations, and networks. They have a competitive advantage in the production under complete uncertainty, that is, when neither the nature of a problem, nor the way in which it can be solved, nor the skills required for its solution are known in advance.

scholarly journals The Social Order of Open Source Software Production

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Jochen Gläser
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Social Mechanism ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Decentralized Decision Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Production

This article contributes to the sociological understanding of open source software (OSS) production by identifying the social mechanism that creates social order in OSS communities. OSS communities are identified as production communities whose mode of production employs autonomous decentralized decision making on contributions and autonomous production of contributions while maintaining the necessary order by adjustment to the common subject matter of work. Thus, OSS communities belong to the same type of collective production system as scientific communities. Both consist of members who not only work on a common product, but are also aware of this collective work and adjust their actions accordingly. Membership is based on the self-perception of working with the community’s subject matter (software or respectively scientific knowledge). The major differences between the two are due to the different subject matters of work. Production communities are compared to the previously known collective production systems, namely, markets, organizations, and networks. They have a competitive advantage in the production under complete uncertainty, that is, when neither the nature of a problem, nor the way in which it can be solved, nor the skills required for its solution are known in advance.

scholarly journals What can scholars learn from Open Source software communities during pandemics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Tennant ◽  
Tom Crick
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Social Demand ◽  
Research Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Outbreak ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Research

When the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak began on January 31, 2020, no-one could have anticipated the impact that it would have on our scholarly communication and publishing systems. That is, perhaps, unless you work on open source software. Right now, global research communities are united to collaborate on solving the threat of the pandemic, sharing resources and knowledge more efficiently and effective than ever before, a process broadly described as ‘open scholarship’ (Dunleavy, 2020). This is essentially akin to how free and open source software (FOSS) communities have been operating now for decades (Willinsky, 2005). Recently, we participated in a “massively open online paper”, or MOOP, that explored the intersections between FOSS and open scholarship (Tennant, Agarwal, et al., 2020). Here, we want to summarise our key findings from that project, and place them in the context of the current outbreak. Critically, this pandemic shows us that many of the pervasive and systemic issues surrounding the evaluation, valuation, use and operationalisation of “openness” in scholarship can be extremely easily bypassed when the social demand and urgency is there, thus showing that the primary barriers towards open scholarship are inherently political and not technical.

Open Source Software Usage in Education and Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 331-345
Author(s):  
Samih M. Jammoul ◽  
Vladimir V. Syuzev ◽  
Ark M. Andreev
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Academic Education ◽  
Engineering Majors ◽  
Network Traffic Analysis ◽  
Pros And Cons

Information technology and telecommunication is considered a new and quickly evolving branch of science. New technologies and services in IT and telecommunications impose successive changes and updates on related engineering majors, especially in practical qualification that includes using software facilities. This chapter aims to join the efforts to spread the use of open source software in academic education. The chapter consists of two main sections. The first presents the trend of using open source software in higher education and discusses pros and cons of using open source software in engineering education. The second section presents network traffic analysis as an example of recent effective research topics and provides a set of open source tools to perform the research's practical steps. The research example with the suggested tools is valid as practical lab work for telecommunication and IT-related majors.

The Impact of Open Source Development on the Social Construction of Intellectual Property

2008 ◽  
pp. 3777-3805
Author(s):  
Bernd Carsten Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Software Changes ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Open Source Development

This chapter discusses the impact that open source software has on our perception and use of intellectual property. The theoretical foundation of the paper is constructionist in that it holds intellectual property to be a social construction that is created and legitimized by narratives. In a first step, the chapter recounts the narratives that are usually found in the literature to justify the creation and protection of intellectual property. The two most important streams of narratives are the utilitarian and the natural rights arguments. In a second step, the paper proceeds to the impact that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) has on the narratives of intellectual property. From there, the chapter progresses to a discussion of the impact of open source software on these narratives. It will be argued that open source software changes our perception of intellectual property because it offers evidence that some of the classical narratives are simplistic. At the same time it will become clear that open source is not a frontal assault on intellectual property because it is partly based on ownership of intellectual artefacts. The conclusion discusses how this change of narratives caused by open source software may reflect on our institutions, laws, and regulations of intellectual property.

A Classification Analysis of the Success of Open Source Health Information Technology Projects

2011 ◽  
pp. 256-273
Author(s):  
Evangelos Katsamakas ◽  
Balaji Janamanchi ◽  
Wullianallur Raghupathi ◽  
Wei Gao
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Health Information Technology ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Information Technology Projects ◽  
Development Status ◽  
Future Research Directions

As the number of open source software (OSS) projects in healthcare grows rapidly, researchers are faced with the challenge of understanding and explaining the success of the open source phenomenon. This article proposes a research framework that examines the roles of project sponsorship, license type, development status and technological complements in the success of open source health information technology (HIT) projects and it develops a systematic method for classifying projects based on their success potential. Drawing from economic theory, a novel proposition in the authors’ framework suggests that higher project-license restrictiveness will increase OSS adoption, because organizations will be more confident that the OSS project will remain open source in the future. Applying the framework to a sample of open source software projects in healthcare, the authors find that although project sponsorship and license restrictiveness influence project metrics, they are not significant predictors of project success categorization. On the other hand, development status, operating system and programming language are significant predictors of an OSS project’s success categorization. Application implications and future research directions are discussed.

A Review of Migration Processes to Open Source Software

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Razieh Sobhani ◽  
Habib Seifzadeh ◽  
Taghi Javdani Gandomani
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Migration Process ◽  
Efficient Process ◽  
It Managers ◽  
The World

With regard to the increasing spread of information technology in the world, access to this technology is of great importance. Due to their competitive advantages, open source software are more popular than the close ones and they are more widely used, as well. Having an appropriate process for migrating, identifying and ranking activities to prepare and perform the migration design in the organization, prevents the failure of the performance in organizations. Today, there are lots of migration processes in review of literature and this will confuse the managers to choose the most appropriate process for their organization. This article studies the presented processes of migration to open source software in the world and by presenting novel factors. It also attempts to introduce an appropriate framework to select the most efficient process in migration to open source software. So that organizations do not have a concern to choose the best migration process and IT managers are able to select the appropriate process for their organizations quickly and with no confusion.

The context and state of open source software adoption in US academic libraries

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-659
Author(s):  
Namjoo Choi ◽  
Joseph A. Pruett
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Chief Information Officers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Software Adoption ◽  
Current State ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
Low Levels

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers and drivers to open source software (OSS) adoption, and measures awareness and adoption stages of OSS in US academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach An online survey of chief information officers, chief technology officers or heads for IT in US academic libraries was conducted. A total number of 179 responses were used for data analysis. Findings From the survey, the authors identify significant barriers and drivers that US academic libraries may consider before adopting OSS and found that awareness itself is not a barrier. While about half of respondents confirmed using OSS, the authors found surprisingly low levels of intent to adopt from current non-adopters. Practical implications This research offers insights for promoting OSS adoption. Also, it provides funding agencies and administrators with guidelines to encourage successful deployment of OSS in higher education. Originality/value While extant research is mostly anecdotal, this research draws from an online survey to snap-shot the current state of OSS adoption in US academic libraries and provides a baseline for practice and research.

scholarly journals Atvirųjų programų naudojimas mokymui

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (43) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Daiva Šiškevičiūtė ◽  
Eugenijus Valavičius
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Proprietary Software ◽  
Business College ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Open Standards

Atvirųjų standartų plitimas kelia naujus reikalavimus informacinių technologijų ir kitų kompiuterinių dalykų dėstytojams. Straipsnyje analizuojamos problemos, iškylančios ruošiantis dėstyti informacinių technologijų kursą, kai kompiuterių taikymo veiksmai iliustruojami atvirosiomis programomis. Taip pat pateikiama studentų pasirengimo priimti tokį kursą analizė – dviejų etapų nuomonės pokyčių tyrimo rezultatai, jų palyginimas su kitais tyrimais, vienų mokslo metų dėstymo patirtis.Teaching of information technology and open source programsDaiva Šiškevičiūtė, Eugenijus Valavičius SummaryThe movement towards open standards on all levels of social life/the life of society puts up new challenges for teachers of Information Technologies and other computer-related disciplines. Vilnius Business College prepared a plan of particular switchover from proprietary software in computer laboratories to open source software. This paper analyses the results of a two-stage survey of students’ opinion about open source software and problems that can occur when using such programs.The changes in students opinion are discussed and results of our surveys are compared with the results of an analogous survey in Lithuanian schools.

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