Open Source Projects and the Meritocracy Myth

“Clearly, meritocracy is one of the myths that the FOSS
community tells itself. By “myth,” I do not mean that the claim is
a lie, but that meritocracy is part of the story that community
members tell themselves to establish and maintain a common
identity.

“In other words, the idea that FOSS is a meritocracy is
equivalent to the idea that America is the land of opportunity, or
that scientists are objective. For members of the FOSS community,
the idea that hard work is rewarded with recognition and the
opportunity for more responsibility is central to their belief
system and their sense of who they are.

” For people to continue to believe such myths, they must have
enough truth in them that no one calls them into question, and
exceptions to the myth can be explained, or even denied.

“Yet if a community’s myths are not a lie, they are not
necessarily the whole truth, either. Often, they are
over-simplifications of a much more complex situation.”

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