Abstract. Open Source Software (OSS) development is often characterized as a fundamentally new way to develop software. Past analyses and discussions, however, have treated OSS projects and their organization mostly as a static phenomenon. Consequently, we do not know how these communities of software developers are sustained and reproduced over time through the progressive integration of new members. To shed light on this issue I report on my analyses of socialization in a particular OSS community. In particular, I document the relationships OSS newcomers develop over time with both the social and material aspects of a project. To do so, I combine two mutually informing activities: ethnography and the use of software specially designed to visualize and explore the interacting networks of human and material resources incorporated in the email and code databases of OSS. Socialization in this community is analyzed from two perspectives: as an individual learning process and as a political process. From these analyses it appears that successful participants progressively construct identities as software craftsmen, and that this process is punctuated by specific rites of passage. Successful participants also understand the political nature of software development and progressively enroll a network of human and material allies to support their efforts. I conclude by discussing how these results could inform the design of software to support socialization in OSS projects, as well as practical implications for the future of these projects.

the state of the literature. We develop a framework for organizing the literature based on the input-mediatoroutput-input (IMOI) model from the small groups literature. We present a quantitative summary of articles selected for the review and then discuss findings of this literature categorized into issues pertaining to inputs (e.g., member characteristics, technology use and project characteristics), processes (software development and social processes), emergent states (e.g., trust and task related states) and outputs (e.g. team performance, FLOSS implementation and project evolution). Based on this review, we suggest topics for future research, as well as identifying methodological and theoretical issues for future inquiry in this area, including issues relating to sampling and the need for more longitudinal studies.

We review the literature on Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development and on software development, distributed work and teams more generally to develop a theoretical model to explain the performance of FLOSS teams. The proposed model is based on Hackman’s [34] model of effectiveness of work teams, with coordination theory [52] and collective mind [79] to extend Hackman’s model by elaborating team practices relevant to effectiveness in software development. We propose a set of propositions to guide further research.

Professional associations could use virtual communities to reinvent their relationships with their members. One promising building block would be to revitalise Special Interest Groups as loose knit Internet based communities. These would be what has been called “networks of practice ” or “communities of interest”. Although recognised phenomena, these terms are little more than labels, however. Far more has been written about the rich, close knit relations of communities of practice. This paper argues that as a model the community of practice concept is useful in defining dimensions by which such looser knit groups can be studied. To this end, community of practice theory is reviewed. The paper then presents a case study of an informal community among web developers. It uses genre analysis to identify a dominant discourse which constitutes the list’s local culture or repertoire. The genres in use are very efficient means of exchanging information, offering broad learning opportunities. They also construct a member identity. They exclude social and political issues, constructing “the problem ” of the web as technical. The “network ” has a sense of community, yet it does not have the level of engagement of a community of practice because of the lack of task interdependence, the limits of the technology in use and the size of membership. This has some advantages such as giving it a longer life, requiring less commitment from members and coordinators and making it scale to numbers in a professional association. Professional associations could build up from such networks of practice, just as corporations have sought to cultivate spontaneous informal groups, to manage knowledge. 1.

All knowledge is context dependent. The relevant context is the social community where it resides, i.e. the ‘epistemic community ’ formed as groups of people define and legitimize the knowledge they possess. In the mutual engagement in a common enterprise, epistemic communities develop, maintain and nurture the codes, tools and theories that provide the basis of their practice. Commonalities of code, tools and theory facilitate both voluntary transfer and involuntary imitation of knowledge within communities, also ones spanning organizational boundaries. Conversely, knowledge transfer between different epistemic communities, whether desired or unintended, is often cumbersome and fraught with difficulties. In order to achieve effective integration and cooperation between its various professional communities and subcultures, firms must therefore undertake investments in boundary-spanning mechanisms. Since these investments are specific to the context in which they take place and to the transactions that they enable, they cannot easily be organized through arm’s length contracts. Firms exist because they have a relative advantage over markets in the integration of diverse knowledge. However, the associated capabilities need not translate into a relative advantage also in the transfer of knowledge, i.e. knowledge exchanged between members of the same epistemic community. Within communities, knowledge disseminates with relative ease both intentionally and through emulation. Knowledge thus acquired can generally be applied also outside the context of the exchange and the effort or investment expended in its acquisition is not transaction specific. The governance mode applied in such exchanges is therefore determined by strategic and contextual factors, including those of traditional transaction cost logic.

The interest the Open Source Software Development Model has recently raised amongst social scientists has resulted in an accumulation of relevant research concerned with explaining and describing the motivations of Open Source developers and the advantages the Open Source methodology has over traditional proprietary software development models.

Self-organizing open source communities and innovative intellectual property regimes

motivations and profit-oriented firms in Open Source software. Do firms practise what

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La dualité coopérative dans le cas d’équipes projet