Abstract
The notion of intellectual property is used in order to create digital commodities. While the commodification of code is useful for certain kinds of knowledge intesive work (the Taylorist forms), it severely disrupts other types of knowledge creation. Applying Scott Lash's division of knowledge creation into organisational and disorganisational types, we also gain insight into the different positions towards IP held by different wings of the FOSS community.
Abstract:
The paper analyzes voluntary Free Software/Open Source Software (FS/OSS) organization of work. The empirical setting considered is the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. The paper finds that the production process is hierarchical notwithstanding the modular (nearly decomposable) architecture of software and of voluntary FS/OSS organization. But voluntary FS/OSS project organization is not hierarchical for the same reasons suggested by the most familiar theories of economic organization: hierarchy is justified for coordination of continuous change, rather than for the direction of static production. Hierarchy is ultimately the overhead attached to the benefits engendered by modular organization.
Abstract:
Why did Microsoft not hire all those smart programmers who ended up developing Linux through the internet? Because, we answer, the value of the information about its operating system that Microsoft should have transferred to any of them to render her productive would have been too high compared to her expected individual contribution, so that after writing a contract with Microsoft the typical developer would have run away to sell the acquired knowledge on the market. On the other hand, knowledge transfer in R&D outsourcing is not always so critical, and for example in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries research contracts are extensively used, usually in the context of a long term relationship between firm and innovator. We analyze this kind of repeated interaction, and find that when the knowledge-transfer problem is not blocking, the firm should transfer to the innovator as much information as it is compatible with the latter's incentive constraints.
Abstract:
Weblogs have been recently characterised as the "open source media". And in much the same way that open source software is been deployed, marketed and sold within both commercial and non-commercial contexts, weblogs can advance both commercial and non-commercial objectives. However, in this primary - research paper, the focus is on the benefits that organisations can seize by embracing weblogs, and how weblogs are bound to revitalise marketplace and workplace conversations. In addition, several case studies are being analysed, ranging from Slashdot and Openflows to Amazon, Macromedia, Groove Networks, and Gizmodo.
Abstract:
This dissertation involved in-depth interviews of over fifty open source developers in two major open source projects. The primary areas of interest were 1) conducting an ethnographic study of the work practices and culture of 'post-burecratic' organizations to see what lessons these groups may hold for managing intellectual labor and 2) examining whether the open source movement represents a new professional model for software engineering.
PAPER 6
Updated Paper
Author:
Chiao, Benjamin Hak-Fung
Title:
An Economic Theory of Free and Open Source Software: A Tour from Lighthouse to Chinese-Style Socialism (revised version) http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/chiao.pdf
Abstract
The theory is that free and open source software is private property under the guise of common property. Such software is distributed mostly under the GNU General Public License. The intents in The GNU Manifesto suggest striking similarities between this license and communism. The resulting economic properties, however, are similar to those of Chinese-style socialism: both resulted from an increased separation of legal and economic ownership. The phenomenal growth of China in the last twenty five years and of such software in the past few years could be attributed to such separation.
PAPER 7
Abstract Submission
Author:
Muffatto, Moreno & Matteo Faldani
Title:
Open Source as a Complex Adaptive System - Published in Emergence 5 (3) http://www.emergence.org/
Abstract:
The Open Source community and its activities can be considered to have the characteristics of a system. The Open Source system is distinctive because it is neither controlled by a central authority that defines strategy and organization nor totally chaotic. It can be placed at a middle position between a planned system and a chaotic one. In this sort of position there are non-formal rules which allow the system to produce significant results. The Complex Adaptive System theory can be used to better understand and analyze the Open Source system. This work presents a description of the main characteristics of the functioning of the Open Source community regarding its organizational structure and development process. The concept of complex adaptive system is then introduced and its functioning mechanisms briefly described. Finally, we will interpret the characteristics of the Open Source community in the context of complex adaptive systems theory.
posted by Marcus Zillman |
11:36 AM
