Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Work Relations without Rules

2007; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

1950-6899

Didier Demazière, François Hørn, Marc Zune,

Open Source Software Innovations

The development of free software is based on individual and voluntary involvement by the participants. The potentially unstable and unorganized contributions they make must be structured and coordinated to result in the production of coherent software. This particular productive configuration delimits the enigma surrounding work in this production universe: how are contributions made, how is this project sustained over time, how is the quality of the product ensured, how are failures handled...? The longitudinal and in-depth analysis of a project that has experienced rapid success shows how these communities are structured, with the progressive emergence of processes like work division, differentiation of positions, selection of contributions, recruitment of animators, transfer of responsibilities. However, this work organization presents original characteristics, due to the absence of contractualization in terms of relations, financial retribution, subordination rules and eviction procedures. It remains largely implicit, but is required in order to articulate two partially contradictory objectives: mobilizing contributors and generating investment in the production of the software, and on the other hand maintaining the cohesion of an expanding work community while preserving software identity.