Sustainability and Governance in Developing Open Source Projects as Processes of In-Becoming

Abstract

Sustainability is often thought of as a binary state: an open source project is either sustainable or not. In reality, sustainability is much more complex. What makes this project more sustainable than that one? Why should it be assumed in the first place that sustainability is a prolonged state of an ingraced project? The threads are pulled from their yarns in many directions. This article attempts to reconceptualize some assumed notions of the processes involved in developing open source software. It takes the stance in favour of studying the fluctuant nature of open source and the associated artefacts, not as well-defined objects, but as commons that are continually built upon, evolved, and modified; sometimes in unexpected ways. Further, the governance of these commons is an ongoing process, tightly linked with the way in which these commons are allowed to further develop. This perspective of "in-becoming" is useful in understanding the efforts and processes that need to be provided to sustainably govern the development of open source projects and the advantages for managing requirements derived therein.

Keywords

• becoming
• emergence
• governance
• open source
• Ostrom
• processes
• requirements
• sustainability