TRANSFORMATION OF FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: GOVERNANCE BETWEEN THE CATHEDRAL AND BAZAAR

ABSTRACT It is common for community-based free software projects to be associated with an organizational scenario that resembles “a bazaar more than a cathedral,” and to differ from the traditional, or ‘bureaucratic’ way of organizing work. This paper analyzes the governance of these organizations from the perspective of their structure and control, considering the development trajectory of three community-based free software projects in Brazil. Results show that the constant need to produce modern technologies gives rise to external pressures that promote change - albeit temporary - in the governance of these projects, making them resemble a cathedral more than a bazaar. Governance does not follow a cycle of sequential improvement; it changes depending on the external organizational actors present, such as sponsors. This suggests the need for strategic and flexible governance to deal with the acquisition and allocation of organizational resources. Governance of the projects described here varies along a spectrum of (in)formality that allows both production models - cathedral or bazaar - to exist in the same organization at different periods.

Strategies to Manage and Preserve Indigenous Knowledge

The knowledge society globally has made us realize that knowledge is an important resource in gaining not only a competitive advantage but also for social and economic development. Each society and country possesses some inherent information and knowledge, which is unique to its growth and development trajectory. This is ‘indigenous knowledge' or ‘local knowledge'. However, the method and approaches to preserve this ‘indigenous knowledge' or ‘local knowledge' is less known and neither understood by many, especially in the emerging economies. Hence, adopting a systematic literature review method and in-depth literature review, the aim of this chapter is to provide strategies to preserve and manage indigenous knowledge systems. Further, the chapter also provides a holistic approach to preserve and manage indigenous knowledge.

South Africa’s Post-apartheid ECONOMIC Development Trajectory

South Africa’s economic and social development trajectory in the post-apartheid period remains a controversial subject, notwithstanding the extensive literature that has developed. This chapter covers the full spectrum of this debate, but importantly also offers new insights and analysis of the issues. The literature is vast. At one extreme, views from the far left argue that the African National Congress (ANC) has essentially ‘sold out’ and followed uncritically a neo-liberal growth path, to defenders of the ANC’s policies from active participants in the process at the other extreme. Between these two views, there are a number of significant contributions. This chapter reviews the history and contestation of economic policy in South Africa and offers some explanations for why the country’s economic progress has been so uneven. It argues that chronic economic underperformance is the result of two persistent problems in the political-economic structure of South Africa. The first is the failure of politicians and policymakers to account for the limits of South African state capacity to implement even simple economic reforms; post-apartheid economic policymaking is characterized by an assumption that the South African state is able to carry out complex economic coordination and effect reforms. Second, the impasse is really a political one caused by ideological contestation within the ANC which has no mechanism to resolve the impasse.

Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage with Cultural-creative Industry

This research aimed to explore the adaptive reuse pattern of the industrial heritage in the 798 Art District. It looks at how the relatively mature Cultural-creative industry links to urban regeneration activities, and what can be learnt from the redevelopment experience. In particular, it explores the role of the Cultural-creative industry and how it used the local industrial heritage to achieve the current layout and operation model of 798 art district. The adaptive reuse model of industrial heritage and the cultural–creative industry is assessed, the current issues and some targeted suggestions of 798 Art District are identified. During the historical evolution, the combination of the deserted urban land and the Cultural-creative industry worked as a successful redevelopment model. Although several studies have summarized of the development history of 798 Art District and its significant role in urban land and art markets, there has been little research on the role of creative class and industrial heritage in art districts and local tourism. This research will first provide literature review looking at the definition and development process of the Cultural-creative industry, the conservation and reuse of industrial heritage and the real-life cases of the reuse of industrial heritage in China. Then, the in-depth quantitative and qualitative methods are used to examine the development trajectory and characteristics of Beijing 798 Art District, the visitors’ tourist experience and the role of industrial heritage at the site. Ultimately, the discussion part will provide the comparison between 798 Art Districts with contemporaneous cases of industrial heritage reusing, and provide some recommendations to future development and operation.

Solving Social Problems in Aging Rural Japanese Communities: The Development and Sustainability of the Osekkai Conference as a Social Prescribing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social prescribing is critical during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Social prescribing refers to non-medical interventions related to culture and traditions; they are increasingly being proposed to address wider determinants of health as well as help patients improve health behaviors and manage their conditions effectively. Traditional and cultural behaviors in the community can be utilized for effective social prescribing. Due to the pandemic, social participation opportunities have decreased, resulting in the absence of Osekkai, a traditional Japanese behavior. A driver of Osekkai is the Osekkai conference; it is the model through which Osekkai is implemented in communities to bring resources and individuals together to address community needs. This research aims to clarify the Osekkai conference’s development process and how it can solve social problems, thereby leading to the creation of sustainable communities. We conducted semi-structured interviews with Osekkai conferences’ participants and organizers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used thematic analysis to achieve the research aims. A total of 12 participants were interviewed. Five themes were developed from the thematic analysis: driver of the Osekkai conference’s development, trajectory of continuity, chain of Osekkai, changes in communities and participants, and sustainability of the conferences. This study showed how reviving traditional behaviors helps face initial difficulties. It described these increasing traditional behaviors in terms of social prescribing that changes the community’s and citizens’ social capital. Reviving traditional behaviors created new challenges and solutions during the pandemic.

Private tutoring in Bangladesh: evolution, expansion, and policy responses

PurposeThis study explores the development trajectory of private tutoring in Bangladesh. Specifically, it illustrates how private tutoring has emerged and expanded in the country's education system and examines how governments have responded on this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted a case study methodology for this study. Data were gathered from different secondary sources such as books, official documents, scholarly articles, and newspaper reports. The data analysis process consists of three-phases of activities: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification.FindingsPrivate tutoring historically existed in Bangladesh. It is rapidly expanded in the country's education system – from primary to higher secondary level. Currently, it has reached an industrialization stage, where commercial coaching has become a major type of tutoring. The expansion of private tutoring is the inevitable result of the continued privatization and marketization of education. To bring the private tutoring under a framework, the government has taken some regulatory measures that can be characterized as “laissez-faire.” The existing measures are largely ineffective, as the policy makers followed an “top-down” approach when framing the policies.Originality/valueThis study, to the best of the authors' knowledge, is the first to target the historical aspects of private tutoring in Bangladesh. It has potential to fill out the literature gap on private tutoring by analyzing its policy aspect.

Urban Growth, Fuel Service Station Disasters and Policy Compliance in Ghana

Disasters associated with Fuel service stations (FSS) in Ghana have been debated severally and attracted policy attention, yet their mitigation strategies seem too far off and unimaginably unrealistic. Knowing that such disasters can limit enjoyment of citizenship rights, Ghana has developed safety standards geared towards mitigating their effects. Framed around the compliance theory and drawing on data from 150 residential owners located within 15.4m buffer zone and five state institutions, this article examined the extent of compliance with safety policies guiding FSS in Kumasi, Ghana. The results showed that compliance with safety policies was sinking into its bare existential levels as none of the facilities selected for the study passed all the 11 safety standards. The facilities also negatively affected residents who never considered their place of abode as perilous and that they live in zones of vulnerabilities. This situation it is argued, fundamentally affects development trajectory of the contemporary African city. It obviously obscures the realities of interrelated processes shaping urban disaster management. Even though the spring-up of FSS have catapulted economic growth, inherently they are also hazard-ridden. We suggest that in the broad scheme of urban planning, FSS safety policies must not be discussed in the margins.

Priority directions of increasing the adaptivity of universities to the conditions of the digital economy

The digital economy forms a set of new challenges to the higher education system, namely: accelerating the pace of socio-economic transformations; transformation of information into a commodity and a productive force; large-scale digitalization of economic entities; virtualization of workplaces; active introduction of information and communication technologies; creation of a global information field; exacerbation of cybersecurity problems. In such conditions, the system of higher education and the activities of universities need to be adequately changed in order to ensure their competitiveness in the modern market of educational services. The article substantiates the need to increase the level of adaptability of higher education institutions to exogenous challenges. Under the category of adaptability, it is proposed to understand the desired property of the higher education system, which determines its ability to absorb shocks, adapt or reorganize in accordance with the challenges posed by the development of the digital economy. The main parameters of the adaptability of the higher education system to the digital economy are the degree of its resistance to external disturbances, the depth of response to them, the speed of recovery after crises, the degree of structural and functional reorganization, the possibility of continuing pre-board development trajectory. The purpose of the article is to formulate scientifically sound proposals to increase the level of adaptability of universities to the challenges of the digital economy. The authors of the set of such proposals are structured according to the selected types of adaptability: introversion and extraversion.