Open Source Communities and Forks: A Rereading in the Light of Albert Hirschman's Writings

[en] The literature dedicated to free and open source software emphasizes the support given by the community to software producers. However, the community is also a place of conflict and can sometimes experience violent splits (forks). Communities can show different forms of resistance to change. In this research, we propose a re-reading of these mechanisms of opposition in light of Albert Hirschman's theory (exit, voice, loyalty). We present the fork as a new form of defection (exit) allowed by licenses and discuss the rationality of choice for the economic actors who implement it.

Disciplines :

General management, entrepreneurship & organizational theory
Library & information sciences

Author, co-author :

Viseur, Robert ; Université de Mons > Faculté Warocqué d'Economie et de Gestion > Service des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication

Charleux, Amel

Language :

English

Title :

Open Source Communities and Forks: A Rereading in the Light of Albert Hirschman's Writings

Publication date :

05 May 2021

Journal title :

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

ISSN :

1868-4238

Publisher :

Springer, Germany

Volume :

624

Pages :

59-67

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Research unit :

W714 - Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication

Research institute :

R300 - Institut de Recherche en Technologies de l'Information et Sciences de l'Informatique
R250 - Institut de recherche pour le Développement sociétal et territorial

Available on ORBi UMONS :

since 29 May 2021

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