Values and Configuration of Users in the Design of Software Source Code
International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 1112–1132 1932–8036/20170005 Values and Configuration of Users in the Design of Software Source Code STÉPHANE COUTURE1 Glendon College, York University, Canada Based on an empirical study of two free and open source software projects, this article focuses on how choices of design within software source code are articulated with values and may favor certain categories of actors over others. After introducing the aim and approach of the study and presenting the studied projects, the article analyzes two controversies that show the articulation of values, configuration of users, and source code design. In conclusion, I argue for the importance for communication and media studies to study the use of source code and how its design may reflect values or may facilitate or constrain the agencies of certain categories of people. Keywords: software source code, free and open source software, digital technologies, configuration of users, values, science and technology studies When I am a graphic designer, my interface is Photoshop, with its buttons, its windows, etc. When I am developer, my interface is code. It is through code that I interact with what I am building, a program. (Interview sf03, July 2009) This quote from an interview I conducted in the course of this study grasps a fundamental argument I want to bring forward in this article: that software source code should be analyzed as an interface with which actors interact to build or modify software. Although metaphors of code are regularly mobilized in communication studies, few studies seem to have been done to closely and empirically investigate what source code exactly is and how its design may reflect values or may facilitate or restrain the capacity of some people to participate in the making of digital technologies.
[Show full text]