[Commlist] New book: Incorporating the Digital Commons

Incorporating the Digital Commons:

Corporate Involvement in Free and Open Source Software
Benjamin J. Birkinbine


The concept of  ‘the commons’ has been used as a framework to understand 
resources shared by a community rather than a private entity, and it has 
also inspired social movements working against the enclosure of public 
goods and resources. One such resource is free (libre) and open source 
software (FLOSS). FLOSS emerged as an alternative to proprietary 
software in the 1980s. However, both the products and production 
processes of FLOSS have become incorporated into capitalist production. 
For example, Red Hat, Inc. is a large publicly traded company whose 
business model relies entirely on free software, and IBM, Intel, Cisco, 
Samsung, Google are some of the largest contributors to Linux, the 
open-source operating system. This book explores the ways in which FLOSS 
has been incorporated into digital capitalism. Just as the commons have 
been used as a motivational frame for radical social movements, it has 
also served the interests of free-marketeers, corporate libertarians, 
and states to expand their reach by dragging the shared resources of 
social life onto digital platforms so they can be integrated into the 
global capitalist system. The book concludes by asserting the need for a 
critical political economic understanding of the commons that 
foregrounds (digital) labour, class struggle, and uneven power 
distribution within the digital commons as well as between FLOSS 
communities and their corporate sponsors.


Contents
1. Introduction: Open Source Software and the Digital Commons
2.Toward a Critical Political Economy of the Digital Commons

3.Shifting Toward the Commons

4.From the Commons to Capital

5.Resisting Incorporation and Reclaiming the Commons

6.Conclusion

Bibliography | Index


Author

Benjamin J. Birkinbine is Assistant Professor of Media Studies in the 
Reynolds School of Journalism and Center for Advanced Media Studies at 
the University of Nevada, Reno. He is the co-editor of ‘Global Media 
Giants’ (Routledge, 2017).


Open Access

PDF, ePub and kindle versions available free from 
uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site books/10.16997/book/39

PDF 978-1-912656-43-1

ePub 978-1-912656-44-8

Kindle 978-1-912656-45-5

DOI: https://10.16997/book39


Format 156 pages 229 x 152mm


Paperback 978-1-912656-42-4

UK  £19.99
US  $23.99

EUR €22.00

CAN $31.49

AUS $32.99

Subject

Communication Studies | Political Economy | Media Industries


Published open access by the University of Westminster Press

https//www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/10.16997/book39

Published 26 February 2020


This book is published in the Critical Digital and Social Media Studies 
Series

https//www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/series/critical-digital-and-social-media-studies

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