7 new papers, 1 Book and 2 MS Theses on opensource.mit.edu

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