[ Thanks to Ned
Ulbricht for this link. ]
“This study focuses on the distinguishing traits of the Linux
managing model. It introduces the concept of process to capture the
idea of impermanence, dissolvability and change. Far from being a
predictable flow of programming, assembling and releasing
activities, it is suggested that the Linux development process
displays a stream of activities that keep feeding back into each
other, thus creating a complex and unpredictable outcome. The paper
further introduces the concept of contingent response patterns to
investigate the interaction flows occurring on the Linux mailing
lists and subsume patch postings, bug reports and the associated
reviewing and debugging activities under its umbrella. The
enactment-selection-retention (ESR) model is subsequently brought
forward to conceptualize this process as enactment of programming
skills subject to selection activities conducted by Torvalds who
retains the selected features and feeds them back to the
developers’ pool to undergo further enactment activities. Key
managerial decisions concerning portability and modularity are,
subsequently, analyzed through the lenses of the ESR model to show
that Linux features an unconventional decision-making process
whereby decisions follow rather than precede actions. Finally,
Torvalds’ beliefs are investigated in the Bitkeeper context to
argue that the Linux managing model leans toward adaptability
rather than adaptation…”