Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Social Structure of Open Source Development

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the house-of-cards-and-cigarettes dept.

HulkProtector1 writes "NewsForge has published an interview Tom Chance conducted with Andreas Brand, a sociologist who is studying the free software world. Read the full interview to learn more about Andreas' views on KDE's development model, volunteer recruitment and retention, motivation, work distribution and more. "

4 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. It's an interesting article by digitalgimpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But I'd personally like to see a reflection on more open source projects than just 1 or 2.

    There are a million+1 projects now. Some with only 2 people, some with hundreds. I'd like to see what the research shows in a larger sampling.

    I'm guessing some of the smaller projects (1-10 people) will have different motivational and organizational factors than a larger project. Simply because of the group dynamics.

  2. It's a religion. by theGreater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No really, think about it. You have a core set of guys who are -really- in touch with the new movement (RMS and ESR come to mind), but who tend to upset a lot of "normal" people. Following in their footsteps, you have a slightly larger, more polished set of people; religions call these "disciples" but we tend to call them "maintainers." They decide where the needs of the real world intersect with the tenets of the ideology.

    Then there's you and me. Honestly, most of us have no idea about the gory details of the whole thing. We gladly use free and libre and EULA'd software to get along in our daily lives. Some of us are more dedicated than others, and we only run Debian. Or Catholix. Or whatever. No matter which one we choose, it's "The Best One" and all others are inferior in some way.

    LUG's as churches, LiveCD's as evangelism... the list goes on and on and on of why Libre and Open Source software are more like a social / religious organization, and less like a goods and services production group.

    -theGreater Zealot.

  3. Who broke Slashdot? by BenjyD · · Score: 3, Insightful

    OK, who broke slashdot? The comments are messed up big time for me: all AC and from random stories. It's even weirder than Slashdot normally, which is pretty scary.

  4. religions are magic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    religion - a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny;
    open source - A method and philosophy for software licensing
    philosophy - any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation

    You seem to have religion and philosophy confused. Unfortunately this isnt unusual because for most people religion has hijacked their philosophy and ethics.

    (source = hyperdictionary.com)