Has Software Development Ever Been Lost in Translation?- From Local Epistemologies to Cosmopolitan Expertise

Yu-Wei Lin

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

Defining user requirements and fulfilling them in practicable ways is the main feature of programming. In mainstream computing, to improve and harmonise software development requires specialist and technocratic resources. Solutions are thought to reside almost entirely in standardisation and thereby the enhancement of intellectual property rights, and much less in the involvement of the wider user community. However, this dominant approach often results in partial outcomes, which may not be perfectly suitable for end-users due to its strong expert-oriented development. This raises the issue that software development is not solely a matter of technical engineering or economic progress. Rather, it also involves cultural, social and political factors. Free/libre Open source software (FLOSS) innovation provides an alternative solution to this translation problem between user and designer, and between lay and expert. This paper reveals the contradictions of the techno-economic representations of software development. Narratives of Linux users groups (LUGs) show that the influence of local knowledge and tacit skills is very much in evidence. Practices in LUGs denote the codification of local knowledge and its translation into more formalised and sophisticated expertise. This raises fundamental questions about whether institutional involvement should continue along its techno-economic route of relying entirely on specialists (programmers) to reach developmental decisions, or whether the process should be made more democratic by allowing a broader range of social interests to have some input into software development. In this paper, I demonstrate the values of local tinkering, skills and tacit knowledge in FLOSS innovation. I investigate how locally defined software problems and locally crafted solutions towards the problems are codified and translated into expert knowledge within FLOSS innovation through intense hands-on practices and ongoing debate. The process of translating local knowledge into formal expertise is analysed in light of data collected from the York Linux User Group (YLUG). While FLOSS is gaining unprecedented recognition at an accelerating pace, and more institutional resources are made available, noticeably from national agencies and industry, it is crucial to get a genuine picture of FLOSS development, on which this paper will shed some light.