Discovering Ideologies of the Open Source Software Movement

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yue, Yang, Wang, Yi, Redmiles, David
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yue, Yang
Wang, Yi
Redmiles, David
author_facet Yue, Yang
Wang, Yi
Redmiles, David
contents Encompassing a diverse population of developers, non-technical users, and other stakeholders, open source software (OSS) development has expanded to broader social movements from the initial product development aims. Ideology, as a coherent system of ideas, offers value commitments and normative implications for any social movement, so do OSS ideologies for the open source movement. However, SE literature on OSS ideology is often fragmented or lacks empirical evidence. We thus developed a comprehensive empirical framework of OSS ideology. Following a grounded theory procedure, we collected and analyzed data from 22 OSS practitioners and 41 video recordings of Open Source Initiative (OSI) board members' public narratives. A framework of OSS ideology emerged with six key categories: membership, norms/values, goals, activities, resources, and positions/group relations; each consists of several themes. With this ideological lens, we discussed the implications and insights into the research and practice of open source.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_17509
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Discovering Ideologies of the Open Source Software Movement
Yue, Yang
Wang, Yi
Redmiles, David
Software Engineering
Computers and Society
Encompassing a diverse population of developers, non-technical users, and other stakeholders, open source software (OSS) development has expanded to broader social movements from the initial product development aims. Ideology, as a coherent system of ideas, offers value commitments and normative implications for any social movement, so do OSS ideologies for the open source movement. However, SE literature on OSS ideology is often fragmented or lacks empirical evidence. We thus developed a comprehensive empirical framework of OSS ideology. Following a grounded theory procedure, we collected and analyzed data from 22 OSS practitioners and 41 video recordings of Open Source Initiative (OSI) board members' public narratives. A framework of OSS ideology emerged with six key categories: membership, norms/values, goals, activities, resources, and positions/group relations; each consists of several themes. With this ideological lens, we discussed the implications and insights into the research and practice of open source.
title Discovering Ideologies of the Open Source Software Movement
topic Software Engineering
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.17509