Democratizing Software: Open Source, the Hacker Ethic, and Beyond

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Citation: Brent Jesiek (2003/10/06) Democratizing Software: Open Source, the Hacker Ethic, and Beyond. First monday (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Democratizing Software: Open Source, the Hacker Ethic, and Beyond
Download: http://frodo.lib.uic.edu/ojsjournals/index.php/fm/article/view/1082/1002
Tagged: Philosophy (RSS) open source (RSS), open source software (RSS), Technology (RSS), philosophy (RSS)

Summary

Author applies work of philosopher of technology Andrew Feenberg to open source software, in particular the notions of technological design, technological non-determinism, and "deep democratization". Author provides examples of open source producing different, perhaps more democratic outcomes, than proprietary software, but concomitant evidence of commitment to democratization among open source contributors is not present, rather rationales and philosophies supporting open source development are diverse and sometimes vague. Positive values such as deep democratization will need to be imported into the open source development community in order for it to achieve its social potential.


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