Abstract
This paper outlines a critical, textual approach for the analysis of the relationship between different actors in information technology (IT) production, and further concretizes the approach in the analysis of the role of users in the open source software (OSS) development literature. Central concepts of the approach are outlined. The role of users is conceptualized as reader involvement aiming to contribute to the configuration of the reader (to how users and the parameters for their work practices are defined in OSS texts). Afterwards, OSS literature addressing reader involvement is critically reviewed. In OSS context, the OSS writers as readers configure the reader and other readers are assumed to be capable of and interested in commenting the texts. A lack of OSS research on non-technical reader involvement is identified. Furthermore, not only are the OSS readers configured, but so are OSS writers. In OSS context while writers may be empowered, this clearly does not apply to the non-technical OSS readers. Implication for research and practice are discussed.
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Notes
The term is criticized since it positions people only as users of a ‘particular piece of technology’, even though these people and their motives for interacting with the technology include much more (i.e., they are, e.g., particular types of workers, carrying out their work tasks that in part include also the use of the technology, etc.), which should be acknowledged through the terms used. However, in this paper the OSS users are not known in more detail, due to which the paper settles for the very general term user and prospective term reader (again, people being positioned only as ‘readers of a particular piece of text’).
However, it is acknowledged that the metaphor of text clearly provides only a limited viewpoint to the IT artifact development. The limitations have been summarized, e.g., by Iivari (2006): it is emphasized that the metaphor is a particularly limiting one when applied in the IT artifact use context. “Conceptualizing implementation/adoption/use of IT artifacts as mere ‘reading’ does not do justice to the heterogeneity and multiplicity of material and non-discursive practices and consequences of the implementation/adoption/use of the IT artifacts. IT artifacts are not only texts waiting to be read by the readers, but they are texts that will actually be ‘put in use’ and ‘have effects’ in a much broader sense than, e.g., television programs or advertisements; safety-critical systems could be taken as an extreme example.” (Iivari 2006, p. 192). Therefore, it is acknowledged that people interact with physical items in the world. People (i.e., the users, readers) are not only socially constructed, but they act and interact with each other and with the IT artifacts in the material world. However, in the IT artifact development context the metaphor succeeds in emphasizing very important issues, which will be discussed further in the discussion part of the paper.
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Acknowledgments
I thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Especially I thank the anonymous reviewer, who emphasized the acknowledgment of the limits and problems of social constructivism and the metaphor of text, and who suggested to use the more appropriate term ‘(more or less) socially produced reader’.
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Iivari, N. Empowering the users? A critical textual analysis of the role of users in open source software development. AI & Soc 23, 511–528 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-008-0182-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-008-0182-1