How Free Software Developers Work
...laboratoire Printemps, UVSQ)
François HORN (CLERSE, IFRESI)
Nicolas JULLIEN (MARSOUIN)
Free software are programs distributed with their source code (the text of the program written
in a programming language that is comprehensible for humans) and with the authorization to
modify and redistribute them freely, which differentiates them radically from private or
"proprietary" software.
Their development is based on the participation of volunteers within a cooperative
organization that relies a great deal on the organizational facilities provided by the Internet.
This configuration leads to questions on the characteristics of the collective action that
enables the transition from individual voluntary commitments that are potentially volatile and
unstable to the completion of a collective production that involves continuity and
sustainability. The production of free software cannot be considered the contingent result of a
spontaneous convergence of individual, independent commitments. It presupposes certain
forms of motivation for the participants to work, who are in turn capable of ensuring a certain
continuity in their commitments and of coordinating the organization of their contributions.
Because even if a software program is a text, it is an "active" text that works insofar as it is
made up of a list of instructions that are automatically executed by a machine, which requires
an extremely strong coherency of the different parts of the text (Horn, 2004).
Empirical preliminary observations show that developers have a wide range of statuses
(students, employees of research centers or private companies engaged in activities related to
free software or not at allÂ…) This infers heterogeneous links between the activity of
developing free software and salaried work. The former can take place outside of working
(salaried) hours, exclusively or not,...
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