Colliberate : The practices of free and open source software

• This ethnography explores the inner workings of LibreOffice, a free and open source software project. It explores the practices that underlie the collaborative production of an office suite of software that can be shared, used, copied, modified and redistributed freely. Thereby this dissertation provides an insight into how ethical ideas, technical expertise and governance structures inform the practices that are used. Such an approach provides important access into the underbelly of software which is too often perceived as neutral infrastructure for digital media. The most important result of this dissertation is the explanation of a complex interplay of technology, political notions, community spirit, and governance mechanisms forms the basis for the collaborative practices to build software. Understanding software as a set of practices allows further investigations into digital media that can produce much needed knowledge about software which has become the infrastructure of everyday life.This study shows that software is not a technical expression but much more the result of a plethora of influences. It analyses a number of key topics: the practices that are activated – how people with different levels of skills and knowledge manage to establish a common way; the break of a community of collaborators with a major software company with the help of a standard technical practice; the complex entanglement of volunteers and economic interests of companies that contribute to the project; the differences within free and open source software - mostly expressed through licenses – that can sometimes result in open conflicts because of diverging perceptions of what freedom and / or openness means; and the role of a specific form of governance in a project that rests on an ideal notion of decentralization.

• Many people use an office suite every day. All those documents, spreadsheets and presentations are boring, right? This dissertation begs to differ. It stresses that we need to know more about software, a technology that has become the de facto infrastructure for everyday life. Colliberate is a study of LibreOffice, an office suite that you can download, use, share, modify and redistribute freely. It highlights the diversity and richness of ideas and intentions amongst the people who build and maintain it. It shows how volunteers and entrepreneurs collaborate in a new form of teamwork. It embraces the ample forms of negotiations and discussions that go into the development of an office suite. By focusing on the practices that are deployed to keep the project sustainable, this dissertation zooms in on a complex interplay of different ethical ideas, technical skills, and governance mechanisms that together form a software project.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

free and open source software

free software

open source

practices

digital media

collaboration

LibreOffice

Media and Communication Studies

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

dok (ämneskategori)