Information Society Watch

August 12, 2008, The Industry Standard

The article traces the growing popularity of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) in Pakistan. The non-proprietary and low cost deployment model of the open source world has attracted not only the amateur enthusiast, it has now widespread deployment in large financial enterprises.

1999, Philip Varner

This overview of the economics of open source software (OSS) focuses on how businesses can use open source models to their advantage. It claims that the open source business model is far superior to traditional closed source businesses, and companies will be required to adopt such open source models to remain competitive.

August 16, 2005, Joseph Stiglitz, Daily Times

Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz writes on the importance of considering the needs of developing countries in the formation of intellectual property regimes, which currently reflect the interests of the advanced industrial countries and big multinational corporations. Giving the open source movement as an example, Stiglitz claims that meaningful innovation can occur without intellectual property protection, but if such regimes are necessary they must be tailored to local contexts and pay attention to the needs of the marginalised economic groups.

July 12, 2007, ComputerWorld

Technology giant IBM has pledged to grant universal and perpetual access to intellectual property that might be necessary to implement standards designed to make software interoperable. The company says that it will not assert any patent rights to its technologies featured in these standards.

January 2007, Charles M. Schweik & Robert English, First Monday

This paper formally describes the concept of Free/Libre and Open Source Software projects (FOSS) institutions and conducts a preliminary examination of FOSS projects in order to shed light into institutions, their composition and importance to the projects. FOSS are a form of Internet-based commons, and an important distinction between natural resource commons and FOSS commons is that the “tragedy” to be avoided in natural resources is over-harvesting and the potential destruction of the resource.

September 2006, David M. Berry & Giles Moss, First Monday

The Creative Commons organisation has sought to introduce cultural producers across the world to the possibilities of sharing, co–operation and commons–based peer–production by creating a set of interwoven licenses for creators to append to their artwork, music and text. In this paper, the authors chart the connections between this movement and the early Free Software and Open Source movements and question whether underlying assumptions that are ignored or de–politicised are a threat to the very free culture that the project purports to save.

2005, Giancarlo Nuti Stefanuto & Sergio Salles-Filho

The purpose of this study was to carry out a preliminary survey of the technical and economic organisation of the use of free software and open source (FS/OS) in Brazil. Integral to this objective was: an identification of the main markets and business models related to FS/OS; a survey of FS/OS capabilities within the country (developers, specialised companies, etc.); consumer and user surveys; identification of the appropriability conditions involved in FS/OS; and other supplementary assets which are essential for FS/OS development and use.

2007, Andrew L

This paper extends the 'free as in free speech, not free beer' axiom of the free software movement to analyse the development of Internet media. The paper observes that while Internet media companies provide the equivalent of free beer, sites "like YouTube, Google Video and MySpace employ a 'hoarding architecture' that provides only a form of fake sharing.

May 2007, Siobhan Stevenson, First Monday

In January 2007, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announced its second multi–year technology grant program for America’s public libraries. The purpose of Phase II, Keeping communities connected: The next step is to help public libraries sustain the public access computing infrastructure laid down during Phase I. Now, as then, the goal of the program is to bridge the digital divide. But it is a digital divide as defined by Bill Gates and not the public library community.

2005, Yuwei Lin

This paper studies the role of gender in free/libre/open source software (F/LOSS) communities especially since an earlier study conducted by the European Union revealed a significant discrepancy in the proportion of men to women. The authors set out to find reasons behind this bias and make recommendations for actions that might improve the ratio of women to men.