Open Source Ethics

Between 2012-2014, while pursuing an M.A. in Development Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences - Mumbai, I completed a dissertation project titled "Networking Change? The Culture of Free and Open Source Software Communities in India". My research was aimed at revealing the actually existing political and ideological positions that inform the everyday discourse on the fora of open source software developers. Based on interviews with thirty key-informants and discourse analysis of publicly archived online discussion groups, I argue that FOSS developers espouse a pragmatic politics interested in defending certain fundamental ideals and infrastructures such as open standards and net neutrality, while being agnostic about others such as intellectual property rights. A very early version of my research and academic writing, this dissertation is about about information technology, knowledge, collective action, community ethics, and other things in between.