Internet, Innovation and Open Source:Actors in the Network
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Internet, Innovation and Open Source:Actors in the Network is a First Monday article by Ilkka Tuomi that examines the dynamics and capabilities of electronically connected social networks and online communities in the language of actor-network theory. The article looks at the early development of ARPANET and USENET how it evolved toward the contemporary Internet through collaborative processes in various development communities which he termed "thought communities". Tuomi identifies the network of Linux developers as a Virtual community and a prime example of a thought community. He summarizes, and goes on to show, that best practices and the open source model had evolved into an "ecology of community-centered practices" responsible for a significant amount of socio-technical innovation.[1]
[edit] Topics covered
Listing of topics covered in each paragraph and section
[edit] Introduction
6 paragraphs:
- p1 — media attention, open source versus proprietary software, corporate investment, quality and best practices
- p2 — intellectual property rights, GNU General Public License, continuous improvement
- p3 — CTSS, ARPANET, J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor, the influence of online communities and computer programming on society, work, human thinking, security and privacy
- p4 — intellectual property rights and access to source code, "a rapidly changing world where commercial appropriation of research and development investments has become increasingly difficult"
- p5 — discusses copyright as a social institution, introduces concepts of interactivity of Actants (social actors) and the theory of "co-evolution of social and technical systems"
- p6 — , more on Actants, collaboration, interaction and actor-network theory evolving into the "open source development model"
[edit] Thought communities: a brief review
11 paragraphs:
- p1 — Here Tuomi explains that knowledge has no basis outside of a social context and is itself, a product of social processes "embedded in social practices, conceptual systems, and material artifacts that are used in social practices" He talks about the co-evolution of Technology, social practice, and knowledge
- p2 — Tuomi cites Bakhtin's treatment in the 1930s of genres and how they allow the co-evolution of concepts and knowledge and their use in a socio-cultural context.
- p3 — Contends citing Ludwik Fleck also in the 1930s that "thought communities" are built from interdependent "conceptualizations, practices, and technologies" which in turn are given meaning, through a long historical process by thought communities.
- p4 —
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[edit] Actor-network theory and reduction of complexity
5 paragraphs:
- p1 —
[edit] Evolution of Linux development resources
8 paragraphs and Figure 1:
- p1 —
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- Figure 1: Key resource producing actors in early Linux development, a timeline of Linux, ARPANET, USENET ...
- p8 —
[edit] Growth of Linux
1 paragraphs and Figure 2:
- p1 —
Figure 2: Growth of the Linux kernel.
[edit] Linux developer community
1 paragraph and Figure 3:
- p1 — History of Linux collaboration Internet-based tools
- Figure 3: Early key developers in different countries, a graph of people by country based on analyzing the first CREDITS file that recorded key authors in 1994
[edit] Sedimentation of source code
7 paragraphs and Figure 4:
- p1 —
- p1 —
- p1 —
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Figure 4: Resource and object development paths, a graph of the kernel size over time
- p1 —
[edit] Structural evolution of the Linux architecture
11 paragraphs and Figures 5,6 and 7:
- p1 —
[edit] Proliferation of resources and actants
9 paragraphs and Table 1:
- p1 —
[edit] Discussion
9 paragraphs:
- p1 —
[edit] Notes
See also:
Internet, Innovation and Open Source:Actors in the Network is listed on List of software engineering topics in the section Notable publications discuss
Source: Internet, Innovation and Open Source:Actors in the Network — First Monday article by Ilkka Tuomi 2000
