Chromium as a tool of logistical power: A material political economy of open-source
Dados Bibliográficos
| AUTOR(ES) | |
|---|---|
| AFILIAÇÃO(ÕES) | UCSD/Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) University of California San Diego USA |
| ANO | 2023 |
| TIPO | Artigo |
| PERIÓDICO | Big Data & Society |
| ISSN | 2053-9517 |
| E-ISSN | 2053-9517 |
| DOI | 10.1177/20539517231182399 |
| ADICIONADO EM | 2025-08-18 |
Resumo
Open-source software is used by almost all technology companies and has become an integral part of the technical infrastructure of digital capitalism. Generally, developers of open-source software have been viewed as a social movement at odds with the capitalist profit motive. This idealized view has been challenged as companies have made significant investments in open-source since the early 2000s. Current research frames corporate participation in open-source as fundamentally extractive in nature, failing to account for these sizable investments. Through a historical analysis of Google's Chromium browser project, we provide another way to understand corporate participation in open-source. This article takes a material political economic approach to argue that control of open-source projects can grant companies logistical power that enables them to influence standards and shape the Internet as an infrastructure for digital capitalism.