Hi All, Just wanted to let you know that I have posted the following four papers on our website. Thanks to the authors for their submissions. We now have 100 papers related to open source and free software on our website from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. Many, many thanks from Eric von Hippel and me to everyone who has submitted papers and made this site a success! Please keep sending more of your work to us! Best Karim Paper 1 Author: Iannacci, Federico Title The Linux Managing Model http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/iannacci2.pdf Abstract: This study focuses on the distinguishing traits of the Linux managing model. It introduces the concept of process to capture the idea of impermanence, dissolvability and change. Far from being a predictable flow of programming, assembling and releasing activities, it is suggested that the Linux development process displays a stream of activities that keep feeding back into each other, thus creating a complex and unpredictable outcome. The paper further introduces the concept of contingent response patterns to investigate the interaction flows occurring on the Linux mailing lists and subsume patch postings, bug reports and the associated reviewing and debugging activities under its umbrella. The enactment-selection-retention (ESR) model is subsequently brought forward to conceptualize this process as enactment of programming skills subject to selection activities conducted by Torvalds who retains the selected features and feeds them back to the developers’ pool to undergo further enactment activities. Paper 2 Authors: Lanzara, Giovan R & Michele Morner http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/lanzaramorner.pdf Title: The Knowledge Ecology of Open-Source Software Projects Abstract: In this paper we characterize the processes of knowledge making in open-source software projects as an ecology of agents, artifacts, rules, resources, activities, practices and interactions. In order to grasp its dynamic features we consider open-source software projects as interactive systems based on dense interactions between humans and technical artifacts within electronic media. Technology, rather than formal or informal organization, embodies most of the conditions for governance in open-source software projects, hence becoming a critical pathway to the understanding of collective task accomplishment, coordination and knowledge making processes. Based on an in-depth analysis of two open-source software projects, we examine three kinds of artifacts, respectively inscribing technical, organizational, and institutional knowledge. Our preliminary findings support the ecological view, that the contradictory requirements of innovation and stability in project-based knowledge making are balanced by mechanisms of variation, selection, and stabilization. Paper 3 Authors: Nichols, David M, Dana McKay & Michael Twidale Title: Participatory Usability: supporting proactive users http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/nicholsmckaytwidale.pdf Abstract: After software has been released the opportunities for users to influence development can often be limited. In this paper we review the research on post-deployment usability and make explicit its connections to open source software development. We describe issues involved in the design of end-user reporting tools with reference to the Safari web browser and a digital library prototype. Paper 4 Authors: Nichols, David M & Michael Twidale Title: Usability and Open Source Software http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/nicholstwidale1.pdf Abstract: Open source communities have successfully developed many pieces of software although most computer users only use proprietary applications. The usability of open source software is often regarded as one reason for this limited distribution. In this paper we review the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discuss how the characteristics of open-source development influence usability. We describe how existing human-computer interaction techniques can be used to leverage distributed networked communities, of developers and users, to address issues of usability. -- =============================================== Karim R. Lakhani MIT Sloan School of Management & The Boston Consulting Group, Strategy Practice Initiative e-mail: karim.lakhani@sloan.mit.edu | lakhani.karim@bcg.com voice: 617-851-1224 fax: 617-344-0403 http://spoudaiospaizen.net/ http://opensource.mit.edu | http://freesoftware.mit.edu http://userinnovation.mit.edu