Dear All, Please find below the latest additions to our knowledge repository. Many thanks to the authors for their submissions. Please provide feedback to the authors directly. Until next time.... Warmly, Karim Paper 1 Author: FRANCESCO RULLANI Title: The debate and the community. The "reflexive identity" concept and the FLOSS community case http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/rullani.pdf Abstract: The empirical studies relative to the Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) case stress the important role played by psychological and social motivations. However, the theories elaborated to cope with this dimension, such as "gift economy", "epistemic community" or "community of practice", are not combined into a unique structured framework. It is possible to draw inspiration from philosophical studies about language and from sociological studies about collective action in order to construct a mechanism here called "reflexive identity"- able to bridge the analyzed theories and to explain the empirical evidences left aside by self-supply, reputation and signaling. The reflexive identity mechanism is triggered by the dialog between the members. In order to simply communicate, in fact, members have to "negotiate" the system of meanings they use to interface with the world and with the communitarian environment. But this means reshaping also their own vision of the world, redefining their identity. Community aims, principles and ethos act directly on members' identity, making them internalize the communitarian structure of rules. The reflexive identity principle, then, merges the psychological and social dimension of the FLOSS phenomenon with the structure of rules adopted by the FLOSS community, and thus it constitutes together with self-supply, signaling, reputation and peer regard the basis upon which the FLOSS community is built. Paper 2 Authors de Souuza, Cleidson, John Froehlich & Paul Dourish Title: Seeking the Source: Software Source Code as a Social and Technical Artifact http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/desouza.pdf Abstract In distributed software development, two sorts of dependencies can arise. The structure of the software system itself can create dependencies between software elements, while the structure of the development process can create dependencies between software developers. Each of these both shapes and reflects the development process. Our research concerns the extent to which, by looking uniformly at artifacts and activities, we can uncover the structures of software projects, and the ways in which development processes are inscribed into software artifacts. We show how a range of organizational processes and arrangements can be uncovered in software repositories, with implications for collaborative work in large distributed groups such as open source communities. Paper 3 Author Beussi, Lorenzo Title: Analysing the technological history of the Open Source Phenomenon: Stories from the Free Software Evolution http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/benussi.pdf Abstract: The Free Libre Open Source Software represents an outstanding example of open development model of technological knowledge. It has been studied in several researches that produced valuable illustrations of the way it works. Our understanding of its principal features is growing exponentially and an entire new literature on open source has been created. However there appears to be an important gap in the literature: the origin of the phenomenon. The paper attempts to tackle this issue by analyzing the long-term technological history of Free Open Source Software; the main research questions at stake are: is the phenomenon completely new? and if it is not totally new, where it comes form? and, more generally, how open source software developed over time? As a consequence the present work focuses primarily on the analysis of the fee/open source software history of technological change over a period of almost sixty years. I adopted a multidisciplinary approach to analyse the network of relations emerging between inventions and technological innovations, as well as economic determinants and intellectual property rights regimes throughout the period considered. Thus, I attempt to investigate the origins of the phenomenon as a way of understanding its evolution. Paper 4 Author: Watson, Andrew Title: Reputation in Open Source http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/watson.pdf Abstract The 1990s and early 2000s have seen the dramatic rise of open source software, with the Linux operating system as the most salient example. This article focuses on the role of reputation in open source. It describes the importance of the reputations of hackers, software vendors, open source projects, and the open source movement. Although reputation has long been used as an explanation of hacker motivation, this article applies the concept of reputation at multiple levels, and identifies the inter-level relations. Paper 5 Author: Arti K. Rai Title" "Open and Collaborative" Biomedical Research: Theory and Evidence Abstract Although a few commentators have discussed briefly the application of open source-type principles to biomedical research, they have not analyzed carefully how the model is actually being used. In this paper, I draw upon an ongoing, multi-year empirical inquiry into the role of intellectual property in computational biology and associated efforts to evaluate the extent to which the open and collaborative research model may promote socially desirable biomedical innovation – that is, innovation that produces marginal health benefits in excess of its marginal costs. Paper 6 Author Dafermos, George Title: The Critical Delusion of Immaterial Labour http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/dafermos4.pdf Abstract: There is an idea of immaterial labour: given that no worker is truly autonomous, the working class formed around the abode of immaterial labour edges in that direction. This idea enjoys a particularly strong hold among people contemplating employment in industries radically transformed or even spawned anew by digitisation, a fine illustration of which is the new media sector comprising Website developers, and e-marketers, to name but two of the more popular areas of specialisation, yet the idea's underlying premises made their appearance a long time before the digital condition ascended in the epicentre of our technologically hypertrophic societies. However, not only this rather ambiguous idea is not grounded in pragmatism, and is thus poised to result in huge misunderstandings as to the social relations of production that the hyped-up class of knowledge workers seems to be defined by; but most importantly, it is also bringing into force a new dialectic of hyper-exploitation in which a multitude of people, both highly-qualified warriors of the digital revolution and deskilled, underpaid manual labour destined to man the call centres in India, give away (all or part of) their labour for free without demanding, or being capable of demanding, anything in return. This essay sheds light upon this multi-faceted problematic, and elucidates on the ends and means by which this obscure master - slave dialectic is set in motion. Paper 7 Authors Jullien,Nicolas & Jean-Benoît Zimmermann Title New approaches to intellectual property : from open software to knowledge based industrial activities http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/jullienzimmermann.pdf We analyze the question of intellectual property in computer software, showing that both copyright and patents do not fit to the specificities and needs of this industry. The alternative model of Open Source Software, based on a very new juridical concept called GPL "General Public License", tends to take a growing importance. We explain its main characteristics, which consist to impose to the producers to disclose the source-code of the concerned programs and of any further improvement if they re-distribute/resell it. We show that by doing that it introduces a totally different approach of intellectual property within industrial strategies, based on a weaker intellectual protection. We discuss the consequences of such a movement in intistitutional and public policy terms and we enlarge the approach to understand its exemplariness, in the context of a knowledge based economy, for a growing number of industrial activities. Book Title How open is the future? Economic, social and cultural scenarios inspired by Free and Open Source Software. (Creative Commons License) http://crosstalks.vub.ac.be/publications/index.html Edited by Marleen Wynants & Jan Cornelis Abstract of the book: There are two reasons why the free and open-source software issue has become such an inspirational and powerful force today: the rise of the Internet and the growing tendency to protect all intellectual property. Internet technology made it possible to handle massive decentralized projects and irreversibly changed our personal communication and information research. Intellectual property, on the other hand, is a legal instrument which - due to recent excesses - became the symbol of exactly the opposite of what it had been developed for: the protection of the creative process. As a result, free-thinking programmers, scientists, artists, designers, engineers and scholars are daily trying to come up with new ways of creating and sharing knowledge. MS Theses Thesis 1 Author Lindman, Juho Title: Effects of Open Source Software on the Business Patterns of Software Industry http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/lindman.pdf Abstract: Open source software is a phenomenon that has potential to change the traditional patterns of business behavior. Research committed so far has not evaluated the entire scale of potential changes, which is the purpose of this explorative thesis. Previous literature on the subject can be divided into history of the phenomenon, explaining the nature of the phenomenon, and a more general discussion about strategies and business models in the software business. By using these theories this thesis provides a framework for analysing the entire phenomenon. The framework is put to use in the empirical part. Data consist of interviews of experts in the field. An analysis of the data is done using narrative methods. The analysis yield eleven narratives that describe the phenomenon. Four of the narratives reveal effects. On the basis of the responses gathered, open source software can change competition environment, customer expectations, the importance of competence, and platform thinking. Thesis 2 Author Cooksey, Robert Title: I Walk the Open Road: Toward an Open Source Philosophy http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/cooksey.pdf Abstract This paper addresses the concept of "Open Source" in a philosophical way. It argues that open source is a virtual entity with ontological significance beyond the realm of the software movement that granted its naming. The paper includes an examination of the technical language surrounding open source software, progresses through a philosophical exploration of this language removed from the specificity of computer languages and technologies, and then returns to an analysis of The Open Source Definition in the light of the philosophical investigation. -- Karim R. Lakhani MIT Sloan | The Boston Consulting Group Mobile: +1 (617) 851-1224 http://spoudaiospaizen.net http://web.mit.edu/lakhani/www | http://opensource.mit.edu My *new* book: http://tinyurl.com/cjxj6