Leveraging Software, Advocating Ideology: Linux, Free Software, and Open Source

Title: Leveraging Software, Advocating Ideology: Linux, Free Software, and Open Source

Research Question: How does software functionality contribute to its expressiveness, and how does this impact governance?

Methodology: The author uses a combination of legal scholarship review, software construction analysis, and case studies of the Linux software program to answer this question.

Results: The author finds that software's functionality and its use in discourse both contribute to its expressiveness. This means that the classic liberal distinction between word and deed is not always applicable when regulating software. The author argues that understanding such programs requires putting such distinctions aside and viewing software as a combination of social and technical practices.

Implications: This research suggests that governance issues related to software need to consider both its functional aspects and its expressive ones. It also highlights the importance of understanding the co-constructive process by which conversation and engineering happen simultaneously in the construction of software as socially meaningful.

Link to Article: https://arxiv.org/abs/0109103v2 Authors: arXiv ID: 0109103v2