2023/01/01 by Bolun Zhang, Davide Carpano · 1 voice · 3 citations
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Open Source Software Innovations
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/20539517231182399
openalex publication_date 2023/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/24
Open-source software is used by almost all technology companies and has become an integral part of the technical infrastructure of digital capitalism. Generally, developers of open-source software have been viewed as a social movement at odds with the capitalist profit motive. This idealized view has been challenged as companies have made significant investments in open-source since the early 2000s. Current research frames corporate participation in open-source as fundamentally extractive in nature, failing to account for these sizable investments. Through a historical analysis of Google's Chromium browser project, we provide another way to understand corporate participation in open-source. This article takes a material political economic approach to argue that control of open-source projects can grant companies logistical power that enables them to influence standards and shape the Internet as an infrastructure for digital capitalism.