Dissertation Research: The Open World - The World of Open Systems

科学、工程和技术社会研究的科学与社会论文改进资助使用人种学和历史研究方法来追踪我们所谓的“开放”系统的出现和特征。这些系统是由一群动机各异、自我组织的志愿者推动的，他们建立了大规模的合作，并采取了设计、生产、交流、部署和使用信息技术的替代方法。近年来开放系统的例子包括强大的计算机操作系统和基础设施（如Linux、Apache）、规模可观的科学出版物数据库（如arXiv、PubMedCentral），以及用于遗传生物修饰的安全系统和方法（如transbacter）。开放系统的含义以及它们对封闭系统的偏离还没有得到很好的理解。本论文探讨了这种开放系统有争议的承诺和危险。该研究将调查开放系统代表了对社会组织的民族主义模式的重大背离，新自由主义经济逻辑的转变以及传统技术创新模式的可持续替代方案的主张。借鉴几种方法传统（包括科学和技术研究、信息科学、创新研究和社会历史），并以详细的实地工作为基础，本论文旨在发展一种全面的理论，以评估开放系统的潜在长期影响。这个项目的主要目标是理解旧系统和开放系统之间的连续性和不连续性，并记录它们存在的转换。其目的是仔细审查，评估和解释更大的历史背景下潜在的转变，同时考虑其对法律和公共政策的影响。该项目的实地考察将集中在三个不同领域的当代案例研究：自由和开源软件、开放学术出版和生物技术领域的开放信息系统。通过选择来自不同领域的案例，研究人员希望建立一个超越信息技术本身的比较基础，这是迄今为止最受关注的领域。此外，一组较小的历史案例研究将作为比较的基线。NSF基金将支持在美国、欧洲、印度和澳大利亚的实地工作，包括在开发人员和用户社区中进行采访和参与观察，参与行动者会议，以及在政府和私人档案中进行研究。在这些地方，开放系统正在被设计、建造、谈判和竞争。研究人员将观察和采访每个站点的开发人员、用户和公共管理人员，并收集和分析文件。这篇论文的智力价值主要在于它对技术社会研究领域的贡献。通过详细的案例研究，该作品将探索技术与意识形态之间的联系，并审视技术系统中“封闭”的概念，无论是封闭的还是开放的。这个项目的更广泛的含义和影响源于它将及时地为关于开放及其在信息社会中的作用的政治和技术辩论提供贡献。这项工作对参与、平等、准入、自由和正义等价值观可能开始在多个领域取代军事工业联合体的主导价值观的过程进行了批判性的审视。这项工作将探索这些转变的动态，到它们存在的程度，以及它们潜在的长期影响，这些还没有得到很好的理解。

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant in the Social Studies of Science, Engineering and Technology uses ethnographic and historical research methods to trace the emergence and characterization of what we call 'open' systems. These systems are driven by groups of diversely-motivated, self-organizing volunteers who forge large-scale collaborations and take up alternative approaches to the design, production, exchange, deployment and use of information technology. Examples of open systems from recent years include robust computer operating systems and infrastructure (e.g. Linux, Apache), sizeable scientific publication databases (e.g. arXiv, PubMedCentral), and safe systems and methods for genetic organism modification (e.g.TransBacter). The implications of open systems and their departures from closed systems are not yet well understood. This dissertation explores the contested promises and perils of such open systems. The research will investigate claims that open systems represent significant departures from nationalistic modes of social organization, a transformation of neo-liberal economic logic and a sustainable alternative to traditional models of technological innovation. Drawing from several methodological traditions (including science and technology studies, information science, innovation studies, and social history) and building on detailed field work, this dissertation aims to develop a comprehensive theory that can assess the potential long-term effects of open systems. The primary objective of this project is to understand the continuities and discontinuities between older systems and the world of open systems and to document transitions where they exist. The aim is to scrutinize, evaluate and explain potential transformations within larger historical contexts while considering their implications for the law and public policy. Fieldwork for this project will focus on three contemporary case studies in different domains: free and open source software, open scholarly publishing, and open information systems in the biotechnology arena. By selecting cases from different domains the researchers hope to establish a basis for comparison that would go beyond information technology per se, the area of most focus until now. In addition, a set of smaller, historical case studies will serve as a baseline for comparison. NSF funds will support fieldwork in the United States, Europe, India and Australia that includes interviews and participant observation within developer and user communities, participation in actors' conferences, and research in governmental and private archives. In these sites open systems are being designed, built, negotiated and contested. The researcher will observe and interview developers, users and public administrators in each of the sites and collect and analyze documents. The intellectual merit of this dissertation is primarily in its contribution to the area of social studies of technology. Through detailed case studies the work will explore the connection between technology and ideology, and scrutinize the idea of 'closure' in technological systems, closed or open. The broader implications and impact of this project derives from the timely contributions that it will offer to political and technical debates about openness and its role in the information society. This work offers a critical examination of a process by which values like participation, equality, access, freedom, and justice may be beginning to displace the predominant values of the military-industrial-complex across multiple domains. This work will explore the dynamics of these transitions to the extent that they exist, and their potential long-lasting effects, which are not yet well understood.