Making and Sharing Knowledge at Electronic Crossroads: the Evolutionary Ecology of Open Source

Based on the analysis of developer mailing lists of two large-scale open source projects, we argue that, in open source development, processes of knowledge making and sharing exploit the structuring properties of high density, massive interaction for evolutionary purposes. The mailing lists reveal patterns of activity and resource distribution that exhibit ecological features. A high number of agents meet and exchange knowledge at ‘electronic crossroads’ within a complex web of software artefacts and communication tools that play a critical role in supporting such knowledge ecology. Electronic artefacts foster variety, mediate human interaction, and replace formal organizational mechanisms. Our findings show that the evolutionary features of knowledge making and sharing in virtual environments challenge current ways of conceptualizing knowledge processes within and across organizations