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Hybrid innovation: The dynamics of collaboration between the FLOSS community and corporations

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Knowledge, Technology & Policy

Abstract

Unlike innovation based on a strong professional culture involving close collaboration between professionals in academia and/or corporations, the current Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development entails a global knowledge network, which consists of 1) a heterogeneous community of individuals and organizations who do not necessarily have professional backgrounds in computer science but have developed the competency to understand programming and working in a public domain; 2) corporations. This paper describes the operation of the hybrid form of developing and implementing software, and also identifies several key factors shaping the collaboration between FLOSS firms and the community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Information Systems, Marketing and Logistics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Yuwei Lin (research fellow based)

Authors
  1. Yuwei Lin
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Additional information

She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of York (UK) in 2004. Her Ph.D. research investigated the heterogeneity and contingency in the Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) social worlds, which is based on a constellation of hacking practices, from the sociological perspective. Her principal research interests center on FLOSS studies, Science and Technology Studies (STS), virtual communities and knowledge management.

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Lin, Y. Hybrid innovation: The dynamics of collaboration between the FLOSS community and corporations. Know Techn Pol 18, 86–100 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-006-1005-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-006-1005-7

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