Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research

Siltala, J. K. (submitted). Conservatism, Normativity, and Technical Decision Making in the GNOME Bugzilla. Science Studies special issue on Free/Libre Open Source Software.

The organization of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) project is the topic of a growing body of contemporary studies. In addition to freely available source code, the open development model rests on the utilization of large numbers of heterogeneous volunteer contributors. This paper concentrates on everyday technical decision making in the GNOME desktop environment project. I will study how such a large, distributed project is able to produce a coherent, usable, and valuable product. I will first review the espoused values of the project as expressed in public. Using empirical evidence, I will then attempt to show how a growing pool of past decisions is used as the normative source to stabilize and maintain the common vision in everyday work situations.