Research Agenda for Open Source (Workshop - January 2002)

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

An agenda-setting workshop of 25-30 invited participants wil be held by the Center for Information Policy a the University of Maryland. This workshop will bring together diverse shcolars and practitioners to explore social and economic issues raised by open source software development. These issues include its relationship to other forms of hybrid enterprise (such as standards development and scientific research), and implications for institutions and policies ina digital society. Particpants will submit sohor statments in advance to structure the substantive discussion and these statements later will be edited and published on the Center's web site. The workshop will consider the feasibility and design of a future international conference that brings together U.S., European, and developing world perspectives and research. The qualities and values claimed for open-source software-security reliabilty, adaptability, extensibility, low cost, and openness-create marketing opportunities and pose policy questions. The latter include how the government develops or licenses software for its own use, how marketplace competition is regulated to promote economic growth and consumer welfare, and arguments for making the Internet and the benefits of the digital economy more broadly accessible, in lesser developed countries as well as in the United States. The success of the open source invites far-ranging speculation and debate about information architectures, contracts, institutional economics, and the configuration of intangible assets and innovation processes. Expected outcomes, include a prioritized set of questions for future research, a web site for academic research on open source, a bibliography and summary report of the workshop publicly available on th Center's website along with edited contributions of participants and links to related other workshops and research. The workshop wil seek to promote new channels of communication among researchers and between the practitioner community and academic researchers, and to elicit broader academic understanding and interest in the issues surrounding open source. The workshop will consider the feasibility and design of an international conference that brings together U.S., European, and developing world research on open source.