The Weight of the Intangible: Knowledge Networks in Free and Open Source Software Development

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F16%3A33160270" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/16:33160270 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="http://vffup.upol.cz/edice/sociopolis/tomas-karger-the-weight-of-the-intangible" target="_blank" >http://vffup.upol.cz/edice/sociopolis/tomas-karger-the-weight-of-the-intangible</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

The Weight of the Intangible: Knowledge Networks in Free and Open Source Software Development

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Free software represents a form of peer production, which is based on reduction of transaction costs achieved by informal modes of organization and use of Internet infrastructure. This work grasps free software through a combination of approaches involving Actor-Network Theory, distributed cognition theory and multi-sited ethnography. The aim of the work is to capture knowledge dynamics in free software projects and to describe the role knowledge plays in this particular form of peer production. Based on data from participant observation, I describe programming as a practice in which action is stabilized, assembled and delegated (through compiled programs) to a number of places (user computers). In this process, software tools serve to transform unstable flow of work into standardized units, which are delegated to public places and are designed to be includable into different compositions. Even though licensing typical for free software intentionally and systematically suspends the rights traditionally associated with ownership (to access, modify and redistribute) by ascribing them to anyone, the activities affected by these rights are practiced only by small groups of actors who possess specific types of knowledge. As a result, it seems that in this environment, there is a close relationship between ownership (on the level of practice) and knowledge. At first sight, this finding seems to validate the assumptions of enthusiastic anticipations related to the potential of digital technologies, that knowledge has become the only determining factor of production. However, I attempt to demonstrate, that knowledge is still situated in extensive systems of production, which are material in nature and that the requirements placed by these systems on actors limit their supposedly frictionless interaction.

Název v anglickém jazyce

The Weight of the Intangible: Knowledge Networks in Free and Open Source Software Development

Popis výsledku anglicky

Free software represents a form of peer production, which is based on reduction of transaction costs achieved by informal modes of organization and use of Internet infrastructure. This work grasps free software through a combination of approaches involving Actor-Network Theory, distributed cognition theory and multi-sited ethnography. The aim of the work is to capture knowledge dynamics in free software projects and to describe the role knowledge plays in this particular form of peer production. Based on data from participant observation, I describe programming as a practice in which action is stabilized, assembled and delegated (through compiled programs) to a number of places (user computers). In this process, software tools serve to transform unstable flow of work into standardized units, which are delegated to public places and are designed to be includable into different compositions. Even though licensing typical for free software intentionally and systematically suspends the rights traditionally associated with ownership (to access, modify and redistribute) by ascribing them to anyone, the activities affected by these rights are practiced only by small groups of actors who possess specific types of knowledge. As a result, it seems that in this environment, there is a close relationship between ownership (on the level of practice) and knowledge. At first sight, this finding seems to validate the assumptions of enthusiastic anticipations related to the potential of digital technologies, that knowledge has become the only determining factor of production. However, I attempt to demonstrate, that knowledge is still situated in extensive systems of production, which are material in nature and that the requirements placed by these systems on actors limit their supposedly frictionless interaction.

Druh

B - Odborná kniha

CEP obor

AO - Sociologie, demografie

OECD FORD obor

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Projekt

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Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2016

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

ISBN

978-80-87895-68-9

Počet stran knihy

170

Název nakladatele

Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Filozofická fakulta

Místo vydání

Olomouc

Kód UT WoS knihy

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