Information Systems Research Forum

Not accidental revolutionaries: Open Source and Organisational Change

Juho Lindman
Department of Business Technology/Information Systems Science, Helsinki School of Economics.

1200 - 1330
Thursday 4 March 2010

Room NAB 4.21

However welcome, the proclaimed Open Source revolution never came to be. Instead, we are observing a steady increase in OS (Open Source) use and organizational changes towards radically more open, agile and engaged, yet commercial, development practices drawing from the OS-world.

The main topic of my (nearly finished) dissertation is the interplay of increased openness and organisational change. I describe the different processes that took place over a three-year period in two multinational software companies that started to leverage OS technology (tools and practices) in their software development. I divide the activity into two processes (1) outbound OS (releasing software assets under OSI approved license over the internet), but more importantly (2) inbound OS (changing the existing internal practices of software production to learn from the OS world).

Based on observations, I want to discuss the idea that there is a local negotiation process between different organizational groups over the term OS that redefines the organizational software production. I focus on the (re-)institutionalisation of the software production and the revoked fundamental changes in the structures of communication and reward.

Juho Lindman is a doctoral student from Helsinki School of Economics, Department of Business Technology/Information Systems Science. He is in his final year of doctoral studies. Data for the dissertation has been gathered as a part of three-year international industry project (ITEA-COSI). Juho is returning to Finland in April to start a job in CKIR (Center for Knowledge and Information Research) of the newly founded Aalto University School of Economics.

If you are a visitor from outside LSE, please send a confirmation to b.d.eaton@lse.ac.uk. You will need to sign in at the reception desk of the New Academic Building. Please note places will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis - registration is not required for LSE students and staff.

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For any further queries regarding this seminar or to request information about future events please contact Frances White. Research Coordinator.

page last updated 23 February, 2010

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