Power, Empowerment and Open Source Usability

Open source software (OSS) projects are often seen as participatory and egalitarian settings where people collaboratively develop software to serve their needs as well as the needs of others. In this paper, however, we argue that power and politics also characterize OSS development, and that this has serious implications for OSS usability. The existing Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research on OSS usability has already shown that power and politics play a role; this study offers a theoretical treatment of the matter. A theoretical framework on power and empowerment is utilized in analyzing empirical data on OSS usability as well as the existing body of knowledge on the topic. With the help of this framework, HCI research can address the aspects of power and empowerment in OSS usability in a more systematic and comprehensive manner.

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