De-commodifying software? : open source software between business strategy and social movement

摘要

"Focusing on open source software the origin, development and organisation of aprocess of de-commodification is examined in an industry that usually relies on strongprovisions to protect intellectual property. Open source denotes a cooperative andvoluntary mode of software development cross-cutting organisational boundariesand transcending relations of market exchange. Starting with the Open SystemsMovement in the late 1970s, which was driven by business strategic and industrialpolicy interests and complemented by a spirit of mutual support in professional communities,a social movement type of collective action has emerged which developsknowledge as a public good. Competent communities share the norms of the hackerculture and cooperate in informal relations challenging the boundaries betweenprivate and public goods. But the open source idea has also been transformed into abusiness strategy by companies who provide basic software products for free andmake money with complementary products and services." (author's abstract)