Doctoral Dissertation Research: Coding Commons: F/OSS Collaboration and the Ubuntu Labor Process

理解软件是如何构建社会和经济可能性的，是对一般社会科学研究以及与知识经济、数字媒体和互联网的数字背景有关的更专业的兴趣的一个关键挑战。该项目通过研究为自由开源软件（F/OSS）项目Ubuntu Linux做出贡献的软件工作者的劳动过程和日常生活，分析了不发达的软件设计和生产领域。F/OSS不同于专有软件，因为它与源代码一起分发，并且任何人都有权编辑、重用、重新利用和分发他们认为合适的软件。这个研究项目检查了Ubuntu生产周期的地理分布，它依赖于数百名全职有偿贡献者和数万名无偿志愿者的协作劳动，他们都在全球范围内工作。志愿者和付费贡献者经常将他们对F/OSS和Ubuntu的贡献归功于参与项目的个人满意度。创造和再现这些条件在Ubuntu劳动过程的组织和再现中起着核心作用。为了理解F/OSS生产和劳动组织的含义，并阐明互联网和经济生产力的未来，该项目考察了有偿和无偿贡献者的实践和工作经验，以及他们在所涉及的劳动过程的发展中所感受到的享受的作用。在局部范围内，使用深度访谈和参与者观察的民族志研究将产生关于Ubuntu工作经验和节奏的数据。在全球范围内，观察和参与国际合作、会议和讨论将产生关于Ubuntu结构和规范的数据。这个项目将揭示F/OSS生产作为一个真实的地方和人们组成的网络，他们为形成一个替代的交换系统做出了贡献。这个博士论文项目将建立一个理论和实证模型，以研究基于承诺参与的软件的重要性，使用跨学科的奖学金来理解该软件生产的社会和经济影响。世界上绝大多数的网页和电子邮件都是由F/OSS提供服务的，F/OSS运行着b谷歌和Amazon.com等公司的大量数据中心和后台办公室。然而，这些公司和互联网所依赖的许多软件在很大程度上依赖于志愿者的无偿劳动，这一点仍然相对不为人所知。这个项目的结果将展示这种软件的生产过程将如何有助于理解全球化的资本主义。在这样做的过程中，它将满足评价F/OSS作为一种解决限制软件访问的知识产权问题、依赖专有软件的问题以及由国家控制的媒体在国际舞台上产生的问题的承诺的需要。这个项目对地点和劳动过程的分析对理解软件如何塑造、调解和改变我们的社会生活和经济做出了重大贡献。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Understanding how software functions to structure social and economic possibilities is a crucial challenge to general social science scholarship and also to more specialized interests concerned with the digital context of knowledge-based economies, digital media and the Internet. This project analyzes the underdeveloped arena of software design and production through a study of the labor processes and everyday lives of software workers who contribute to Ubuntu Linux, a Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) project. F/OSS is different from proprietary software because it is distributed with the source code as well as with the right for anyone to edit, reuse, repurpose, and distribute the software as they see fit. This research project examines the geography of Ubuntu production cycles, which rely upon the collaborative labor of several hundred full-time paid contributors and tens of thousands of unpaid, volunteer contributors, all working around the globe. Volunteer and paid contributors regularly attribute their dedication to F/OSS and to Ubuntu in particular to personal satisfaction with being involved with the project. Creating and reproducing these conditions plays a central role in the organization and reproduction of Ubuntu labor processes. To understand the implications of F/OSS production and labor organization and to shed light on the future of the Internet and economic productivity generally, this project examines the practices and work experiences of paid and unpaid contributors and the role of enjoyment they feel in the development of the labor processes involved. At the local scale, ethnographic research using in-depth interviews and participant observation at places of Ubuntu will generate data on the experiences and rhythms of Ubuntu work. At the global scale, observing and participating in international collaboration, meetings, and discussions will generate data on the structures and norms in Ubuntu. This project will reveal F/OSS production as a network of real places and people who contribute to forming an alternative system of exchange. This doctoral dissertation project will develop a theoretical and empirical model of the significance of software grounded in a committed engagement, using interdisciplinary scholarship to understand the social and economic implications of the production of this software. The vast majority of web pages and emails in the world are served by F/OSS, and F/OSS runs the massive data centers and back offices of firms such as Google and Amazon.com. Yet it remains relatively unknown that much of the software upon which these companies and the Internet depend relies heavily on the unpaid labor of volunteers for its production. The results of this project will show how the production process of this kind of software will contribute to understanding globalizing capitalism. In doing so, it will meet the need to evaluate the promises of F/OSS as a solution to problems of intellectual property rights that restrict access to software, problems of dependency upon proprietary software, and problems in the international arena generated by state-controlled media. This project's analysis of place and labor processes makes a significant contribution to understanding how software shapes, mediates, and transforms our social lives and economies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.