Deconstructing written rules and hierarchy in peer produced software communities

2022/06/16 by Mahasweta Chakraborti, Chakraborti, Mahasweta, Beril Bulat +7
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance #H.5.3 #Open Source Software Innovations #Private Equity and Venture Capital

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2206.07992

openalex publication_date 2022/06/16 · openalex created_date 2022/06/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We employ recent advances in computational institutional analysis and NLP to investigate the systems of authority that are reflected in the written policy documents of the ASF. Our study to decipher the effective similarities or departures of the ASF model from conventional software companies reveals evidence of both flat and bureaucratic governance in a peer production set up, suggesting a complicated relationship between business-based theories of administrative hierarchy and foundational principles of the OSS movement.

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