Eugene Eric Kim (May 31, 2005) (5UY)
This paper describes how free and open source software (F/OSS) adoption became a national policy goal in Brazil, in large part through a deliberately-mobilized set of affinities between F/OSS principles and the nationalist, developmental, and democratic goals of the Workers' Party. Kim presents the complex incorporation of F/OSS into national party politics in Brazil, with the corresponding set of opportunities and risks. He also outlines Brazil's formulation of a more assertive, state-driven geopolitics of F/OSS, as it begins to offer an example of F/OSS adoption and ICT policy to other industrializing countries. Sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and published in its report, "The Politics of Open Source Adoption." (5UZ)
Eugene Eric Kim (April 2003) (47L)
How do open source communities work? What are the demographics of those who participate in these communities? This report describes what open source communities are and how they work, answering these and other pertinent questions. It presents two case studies of open source projects, TouchGraph and SquirrelMail, identifying patterns of collaboration that both of these projects share and describing how these patterns might apply to other types of communities. Finally, it reviews what is not yet well understood about open source communities, and proposes several paths for further research. Sponsored by the Omidyar Foundation. (47M)
Eugene Eric Kim (September 28, 2005) (5V1)
While we should value innovation, we should cherish ideas that prove their importance over and over again. This essay discusses patterns of high-performance collaboration found in the PACT compiler project in the 1950s and the World Trade Center recovery effort. Published in Open Sources 2.0 (O'Reilly & Associates 2005) (5V2)
Eugene Eric Kim (March 29, 2004) (47P)
This essay is a manifesto about software for collaboration -- why the world's future depends on it, why the current crop of tools isn't good enough, and what programmers can and must do about it. It suggests a strategy for improving the interoperability between different tools, and offers a roadmap for the implementation of this strategy. Published in Dr. Dobb's Journal, May 2004. (47Q)