Zack BatistJul 18, 2024

A paper by @joeroe and I has finally been published in Internet Archaeology! https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.67.13

The paper investigates the collaborative experiences involved in archaeological open source software development, looking how archaeologists create these tools as part of a broader community of practice

#OpenSource #OpenScience #OpenArchaeology #STS

Open Archaeology, Open Source? Collaborative practices in an emerging community of archaeological software engineers

This article investigates modes of collaboration in the emerging community of practice using 'open-archaeo', a curated list of archaeological software, and data on the activity of associated GitHub repositories and users. An exploratory quantitative analysis is conducted to characterise the nature and intensity of these collaborations and map the collaborative networks that emerge from them.

Show threadJohn Layt
@zackbatist @joeroe This is an important paper that validates what I think many have long suspected. At CAA 2016 I gave a 'provocation' talk on "Open Source: we're doing it wrong" that made the point Open Source is not about building software, but about building communities. It's the only sustainable model for building a lasting ecosystem. Until we create our own KDE/Gnome/Apache-like community, we'll just keep falling well short of what could otherwise be possible.
Jul 18, 2024 at 8:06pmWeb
Show threadZack BatistJul 18, 2024
@jlayt @joeroe I completely agree that we need to focus more on community-building. At the same time, I'm not sure that the ways that those projects manage their community contributions are necessarily compatible with our own culture, motives, support structures, evaluation protocols, etc. Plus, those projects face their own sustainability challenges too. I think we need to develop a rhythm that works for our needs, while also co-evolving those needs to better suit the future we want to inhabit
Show threadZack BatistJul 18, 2024

@jlayt @joeroe paraphrased from the final paragraph:

...to make open source effective in relation to the aforementioned goals of encouraging greater inclusivity, transparency, and productivity, we also need to foster a culture that supports active, pragmatic and humble critique, and which instils a de-territorialised attitude concerning what it means to contribute to collective knowledge. This means fighting against the pathological power-relations that scaffold all aspects of academic life ...