Free Software Development: Cooperation and Conflict in a Virtual Organizational Culture

This chapter presents an empirical study of a free software development community and how its virtual organizational culture influences its work practices. Results show that beliefs in free software and freedom of choice, and values in cooperative work and community influence work practices and norms. The authors wish to convey the importance of understanding the deeply held beliefs and values of the free software movement by showing how a free software development community uses computermediated communication in the form of IRC (instant messaging), mailing lists, and summary digests to mitigate and resolve conflicts, build a community, reinforce beliefs, and facilitate teamwork. Results are intended to assist future contributors and managers of free/open source software development projects in understanding the social world surrounding free/open source software development. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com ITB10132 IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING This chapter appears in the book, Free/Open Source Software Development, edited by Stefan Koch. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Cooperation and Conflict in a Virtual Organizational Culture 153 Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. INTRODUCTION Free/open source software (F/OSS) development projects are growing at a rapid rate. The SourceForge website estimates 750,000+ users with 700 new ones joining every day and a total of 75,000+ projects with 60 new ones added each day. Thousands of F/OSS development projects have emerged within the past few years (DiBona, Ockman, & Stone, 1999; Pavlicek, 2000) leading to the formation of globally dispersed virtual communities (Kollock & Smith, 1999). Examples of F/OSS development projects are found in the social worlds that surround computer game development; X-ray astronomy and deep space imaging; academic software design research; business software development; and Internet/Web infrastructure development (Elliott, 2003; Elliott & Scacchi, 2003a, 2003b; Scacchi, 2002a, 2002b). Working together in globally distributed virtual communities, F/OSS developers communicate and collaborate using a wide range of web-based tools including Internet Relay Chat (IRC) for instant messaging, CVS for concurrent version control (Fogel, 1999), electronic mailing lists, and more (Scacchi, 2002b). Proponents of F/OSS claim advantages such as improved software validity, simplification of collaboration, and reduced software acquisition costs. While some researchers have examined F/OSS development using quantitative studies exploring issues like developer defect density, core team size, motivation for joining free/open source projects, and others (Koch & Schneider, 2000; Mockus, Fielding, & Herbsleb, 2000, 2002), few researchers have explored the social phenomena surrounding F/OSS development (Berquist & Ljungberg, 2001; Mackenzie, Rouchy, & Rouncefield, 2002). Popular literature has described F/OSS developers as members of a “geek” culture (Pavlicek, 2000) notorious for nerdy, technically savvy, yet socially inept people, and as participants in a “gift” culture (Berquist & Ljungberg, 2001; Raymond, 2001) where social status is measured by what you give away. However, no empirical research has been conducted to study F/OSS developers as virtual organizational cultures (Martin, 2002; Schein, 1992) with beliefs and values that influence decisions and technical tool choices. In this chapter, we present the results of a virtual ethnography to study the work culture and F/OSS development work processes of a free software project, GNUenterprise (GNUe) (http://www. gnuenterprise.org). We identify beliefs and values of the free software movement (Stallman, 1999) associated with the work culture of the GNUe community, and we show the importance of computer-mediated communication (CMC) such as chat/instant messaging and summary digests in building community, resolving conflicts, and facilitating teamwork. The free software movement promotes the production of free software that is open to anyone to copy, study, modify, and redistribute (Stallman, 1999). The Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded by Richard M. Stallman (known as RMS in the F/OSS community) in the 1980s to promote the ideal of freedom and the production of free software based on philosophical convictions and on the concept 20 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/chapter/free-softwaredevelopment/18724? camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Books, InfoSci-Software Technologies, Science, Engineering, and Information Technology, InfoSci-Select, InfoSci-Computer Science and Information Technology, InfoSci-Select, InfoSci-Select. Recommend this product to your librarian: www.igi-global.com/e-resources/libraryrecommendation/? id=1