Do penguins eat scallops?
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Do penguins eat scallops? Tony Cornford1, Claudio Ciborra1 and Maha Shaikh1 1
Department of Information Systems, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, U.K. Correspondence: Tony Cornford, Department of Information Systems, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, U.K. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Given that is in large part his words and ideas that this paper contains we include Claudio Ciborra as an author, located between us in the name order.
European Journal of Information Systems (2005) 14, 518–521. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000583
In mid 2003 the journal Management Science announced a call for papers for a special issue on Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS). The deadline for submission was 1 September 2004. As the call proposed: Researchers in the social sciences have become aware of the very interesting characteristics of F/OSS and its development system, and a lively, interdisciplinary research community has sprung up to explore the phenomenon and its implications for management.
We (Tony Cornford and Maha Shaikh) had a long standing interest in open source and in particular in the enduring debates over the use of version control software (VCS) within the Linux kernel community, a debate that was (and still is) the basis for Maha’s PhD research. The call for papers provided both of us with a general motivation to prepare and submit a manuscript. However, motivations in our case are fragile alignments that are often displaced, translated and diffused. For Claudio, then the Convenor (Chair) of our Department, our vague commitment was something to be worked on and reinforced. Indeed, as the department’s Boss (a word he liked to use) Claudio exhibited a talent for an engaging (if at times enraging) form of Bossishness, and his at first gentle but increasingly insistent nagging about this putative paper disturbed us both through the early months of 2004. By the end of June 2004, just as he had departed from London for the start of his proposed Sabbatical year, he raised the heat a notch more.1 This morning I talked to Maha about her progress on the Management Science paper. She told me where she stands. Given that the deadline is September 1st, here is how I can help. I could read Maha’s material (case and abstract) to become familiar with the topic. [y] I can work on co-authoring the paper especially on the learning theory part. I think the MS opportunity is a precious one [y] It is now time for you to assess whether my involvement is necessary and advisable or if you think you can do otherwise. Now is the time to decide on this matter. Please let me know asap. Best Claudio
Our response was, of course, inclusive and we sent him our work so far and an outline of the paper we proposed to write However, what was the paper we wished to write? It was, put simply (the only way we could put it at the time) an investigation of the role of version control software as a mechanism/machination for learning within the Linux community. We had data
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