THE INDIRECT DEBATE AND THE COMMUNITY. HOW THE PERIPHERY AND THE CORE RELATE IN THE FREE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE COMMUNITY

The present paper analyzes the relationship between the core and the periphery in the Free/Open Source innovation model. Considering the core as the sparring partner of the periphery, and not vice versa, the present discussion tries to apply a view opposite to the most diffused one. The first passages of the paper are meant to characterize the periphery, its functions, and the source of the realized division of labor with the core. It is shown that this specific schema is the consequence of the self-organizing nature of the FOSS model, that needs to dissipate resources to assure that the whole dynamics does not cease. However, this peculiar division of labor is possible only if the periphery and the core share the same set of interpretative schemes, norms and vision of the authoritative configuration of the community. To understand how this last passage is possible, I develop a conceptual model based on Wenger's concept of imagination and alignment, usually kept in the background by the literature on FOSS, and on the idea of dissonance (e.g. Kuran, 1998). Eventually, the paper tries discuss the relevant properties of the periphery (invisibility, atomization and instability) emerging from the analysis of the possible flaws of the process.