Abstract
ABSTRACT It is common for community-based free software projects to be associated with an organizational scenario that resembles “a bazaar more than a cathedral,” and to differ from the traditional, or ‘bureaucratic’ way of organizing work. This paper analyzes the governance of these organizations from the perspective of their structure and control, considering the development trajectory of three community-based free software projects in Brazil. Results show that the constant need to produce modern technologies gives rise to external pressures that promote change - albeit temporary - in the governance of these projects, making them resemble a cathedral more than a bazaar. Governance does not follow a cycle of sequential improvement; it changes depending on the external organizational actors present, such as sponsors. This suggests the need for strategic and flexible governance to deal with the acquisition and allocation of organizational resources. Governance of the projects described here varies along a spectrum of (in)formality that allows both production models - cathedral or bazaar - to exist in the same organization at different periods.
Highlights
Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) and its diffusion, combined with increasing environmental complexity (Seidel & Stewart, 2011; Zebari, Zeebaree, Jacksi, & Shukur, 2019), have facilitated the emergence of modern and flexible organizations, which present themselves in a multitude of 'configurations' known as virtual communities (Arazy, Daxenberger, Lifshitz-Assaf, Nov, & Gurevych, 2016; Faraj, Jarvenpaa, & Majchrzak, 2011)
In the metaphor used by Raymond (1999, 2005) with regard to the community model of production, free software projects are seen as bazaars, with their informal way of working, while traditional organizations are perceived as cathedrals, which function by way of a formalized structure and control processes
It is important to note that the CoGrOO project differs from other projects because its source code is coupled with the OpenNLP project, which is currently part of the Apache Foundation
Summary
Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) and its diffusion, combined with increasing environmental complexity (Seidel & Stewart, 2011; Zebari, Zeebaree, Jacksi, & Shukur, 2019), have facilitated the emergence of modern and flexible organizations, which present themselves in a multitude of 'configurations' known as virtual communities (Arazy, Daxenberger, Lifshitz-Assaf, Nov, & Gurevych, 2016; Faraj, Jarvenpaa, & Majchrzak, 2011). A widespread example of a venture that is based on a virtual community format is free software projects (Li-Ying & Salomo, 2013; Seidel & Stewart, 2011). These communities are represented by projects that are created on the Internet, in which the program's source code is made publicly available to receive the external contributions of users and developers through the significant participation of volunteers (Eseryel, Wei, & Crowston, 2020; Santos, 2010; Seidel & Stewart, 2011; Shah, 2006). A pivotal concept for verifying how work is performed in organizations is governance, which is multidimensional and involves formal and informal means for directing the actions of individuals (Li-Ying & Salomo, 2013; Markus, 2007)
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