[JoPP-Public] FOSS and firms: new publications

Tue Mar 24 13:04:34 CET 2020

Thanks for these, Mathieu.

Putting on my to-read list - and have also tweeted from our Twitter acct:
https://twitter.com/Peer_Production

Just to add that if anyone else has articles/readings/thoughts they'd like
to disseminate via @Peer_Production, we'd love to have them. Just let me
know, and I'll add you as a co-editor...

- Kat

--------------------->>> ☾
Kat Braybrooke

Research Fellow
CreaTures: Creative Practices for Transformational Futures
School of Engineering & Design
University of Sussex

On Tue, 24 Mar 2020 at 01:50, Mathieu O'Neil <mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au>
wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I hope everyone has not been affected too horribly by the pandemic. These
> are very, very tough times. Yet maybe they also present opportunities for
> positive social change. For example I've been working with Sophie on
> putting together "principles and proposals for the commons" for the
> upcoming Handbook of Peer Production (more on that at a later date). This
> was in initially conceived in response to the climate crisis so articulated
> around job losses due to automation, relocalisation and degrowth, and P2PF
> notions like "design global, manufacture local" or DGML. It's interesting
> to see how current events are making related initiatives that seemed
> far-fetched a few months ago, like a basic income and free utilities, a
> reality in some places.
>
> Anyway, I thought I would share some research by myself and others around
> how some sectors of peer production have been swallowed up by the market.
>
> "‘Open source has won and lost the war’: Legitimising commercial–communal
> hybridisation in a FOSS project" by Mathieu O’Neil, Laure Muselli, Mahin
> Raissi and Stefano Zacchroli, New Media & Society.
>
> Summary: 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.
>
> https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444820907022?journalCode=nmsa
> The preprint is available on Zack's publications page:
> https://upsilon.cc/~zack/research/publications/
>
> This is a follow-up to "Preliminary Report on the Influence of Capital in
> an Ethical-Modular Project: Quantitative data from the 2016 Debian Survey"
> by Molly de Blanc, Mathieu O’Neil, Mahin Raissi and Stefano Zacchiroli
> published in JoPP#10
>
> http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-10-peer-production-and-work/preliminary-report-debian-survey/
>
> In the same issue we also published an article on "From the Commons to
> Capital: Red Hat, Inc. and the Business of Free Software" by Benjamin
> Birkinbine
>
> http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-10-peer-production-and-work/from-the-commons-to-capital/
>
> Most of you are probably aware that Ben has recently released a book on a
> very similar topic: "Incorporating the Digital Commons: Corporate
> Involvement in Free and Open Source Software" (University of Westminster
> Press, 2020). Just in case you weren't:
>
> Summary: In the book, I draw from a critical political economic framework
> to investigate the intersection of the digital commons and digital
> capitalism. I use three case studies (Microsoft's history with FLOSS
> communities, Red Hat's relationship with the Fedora Project, and Oracle's
> acquisition of Sun Microsystems) to illustrate different dynamics between
> FLOSS communities and corporations.
>
>
> https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.uwestminsterpress.co.uk%2fsite%2fbooks%2f10.16997%2fbook39%2f&c=E,1,evVuIHboeuiMCHGZT13NDwGSmq5vXdOau0rAhL4zvd9AY13Bw1YSVCpvXK62yAVPWGYeovZEVIFLv4WlrIo6uzUcAx3Ej-H6AVh3w8QbqcJs9EKi&typo=1
>
>
> cheers,
> Mathieu
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