• Selected
• Entire List

Abstract:
Theorists have speculated how open source software projects with porous boundaries and shifting and indeterminate membership develop code in an open and public environment. This research uses a multi-method approach to understand how one community managed open source software project, Debian, develops a membership process. We examine the project's face-to-face social network during a five-year period (1997-2002) to see how changes in the social structure affect the evolution of membership mechanisms and the determination of gatekeepers. While the amount and importance of a contributor's work increases the probability that a contributor will become a gatekeeper, those more central in the social network are more likely to become gatekeepers and thus influence the membership process. A greater understanding of the mechanisms open projects use to manage their boundaries has critical implications for knowledge producing communities operating in pluralistic, open and distributed environments. It also contributes to our theoretical understanding of how network structures help shape the construction of new social orders.

open source software, technical communities, knowledge communities, distributed teams, gatekeepers, accumulative advantage, scale free networks, self managing teams, membership processes, open science, public science

Abstract:
Theorists have argued that network based projects rely upon lateral modes of coordination, but little research examines how the ambiguity that ensues is managed. With an ethnographic study of music producers, we studied how those in the structurally central 'nexus' role integrated contributions from experts without direct authority over them. We found that nexus actors differentiated their responses to three types of ambiguity: an ambiguous quality metric; ambiguous occupational jurisdictions; and an ambiguous transformation process. Our grounded theoretical explanation of the nexus role specifies an underappreciated relational form of brokerage that contrasts with structural conceptions of brokerage and delineates the types of ambiguity that can be resolved through relational work.

Abstract:
Post-bureaucratic forms of organizing are theorized to rely upon lateral as opposed to vertical authority, but few have studied how lateral authority operates in practice. With a longitudinal, multi-network study of a mature open source project, we predict what leads individuals to gain lateral authority over collective work. While technical contributions are initially important, coordination work become more critical at a subsequent stage. After gaining authority, individuals significantly increase the effort spent coordinating project work. By specifying the antecedents and consequences of lateral authority, our research refines our theoretical conception of how knowledge work in project and communities is coordinated.

Abstract:
One body of research treats brokers as strategic arbitrageurs extracting advantage from their position, while another body of research paints brokers as relational experts connecting others to foster creativity and innovation. Because both conceptions are static, they fail to capture how brokerage evolves throughout the creative process. With an ethnographic study of music producers, we find that creative brokerage involves blending both approaches depending on the type of ambiguity involved. Producers leveraged their brokerage role not just for individual gain but to integrate project contributors’ ideas while maintaining project support. In doing so, they moved between these two ideal conceptions of brokerage and broke from them - to foster a collective creative outcome.