Start Date
12-13-2015
Description
This paper contrasts the open-source promise and its actual implementations in organizations. It describes what kinds of discursive changes take place in commercial organizations when they co-opt open-source ways to produce software. This qualitative, interpretative case study in a comparative setting investigates whether such software production can be conceptualized as commons. Findings indicate that the meaning of the term “open source software” varies greatly in the studied cases and that the resulting way to produce software can hardly be characterized as commons or commons based.
Recommended Citation
Lindman, Juho, "Investigating the Free/Libre Open Source Software Commons in Commercial Organizations" (2015). ICIS 2015 Proceedings. 13.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2015/proceedings/ManagingIS/13
Investigating the Free/Libre Open Source Software Commons in Commercial Organizations
This paper contrasts the open-source promise and its actual implementations in organizations. It describes what kinds of discursive changes take place in commercial organizations when they co-opt open-source ways to produce software. This qualitative, interpretative case study in a comparative setting investigates whether such software production can be conceptualized as commons. Findings indicate that the meaning of the term “open source software” varies greatly in the studied cases and that the resulting way to produce software can hardly be characterized as commons or commons based.