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Folding and unfolding : balancing openness and transparency in open source communities
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Shaikh, Maha and Vaast, Emmanuelle (2016) Folding and unfolding : balancing openness and transparency in open source communities. Information Systems Research, 27 (4). pp. 813-833. doi:10.1287/isre.2016.0646 ISSN 1047-7047.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2016.0646
Abstract
Open source communities rely on the espoused premise of complete openness and transparency of source code and development process. Yet, openness and transparency at times need to be balanced out with moments of less open and transparent work. Through our detailed study of Linux Kernel development we build a theory that explains that transparency and openness are nuanced and changing qualities that certain developers manage as they use multiple digital technologies and create, in moments of needs, more opaque and closed digital spaces of work. We refer to these spaces as digital folds. Our paper contributes to extant literature: by providing a process theory of how transparency and openness are balanced with opacity and closure in open source communities according to the needs of the development work; by conceptualizing the nature of digital folds and their role in providing quiet spaces of work: and, by articulating how the process of digital folding and unfolding is made far more possible by select elite actors’ navigating the line between the pragmatics of coding and the accepted ideology of openness and transparency.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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Subjects: | Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software | ||||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Information Systems & Management Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Open source software, Computer programmers, Computer software -- Development , Qualitative research | ||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Information Systems Research | ||||||||||
Publisher: | Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences | ||||||||||
ISSN: | 1047-7047 | ||||||||||
Official Date: | December 2016 | ||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 27 | ||||||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 813-833 | ||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1287/isre.2016.0646 | ||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 29 April 2016 | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 13 September 2017 |
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