Corporations increasingly engage with open source software communities in the co‐creation of software. This collaboration between corporate professionals and open source software community members is strikingly different from the early days of software development where for‐profit firms attempted to dominate and control the industry while attempting to throttle the success of independent developers offering an alternative, open source option. While many metaphors like trading zones, common pool resources and ecosystems have helped understand the phenomenon, the metaphors do not portray what the industry was like before and after the transition. We adopt a postcolonial metaphor as an analytical lens to examine such collaboration based on qualitative data gathered over three years from executives, managers and developers within corporations that engage in open source software development. Drawing on these insights, we then theorize a “Third Design Space,” based on the concept of the third space proposed by Bhabha. This metaphor encourages the cultivation of a new design environment, creation of new design associations and circulation of shared design resources. Together these practices and behaviours make it possible to nurture innovative methods and new rituals for designing software with results and methods that represent a distinct departure from the competitive and proprietary past, even creating innovative artefacts that could not have been created without the Third Design Space.

中文翻译：

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第三个设计空间：企业参与开源软件社区的后殖民视角

公司越来越多地与开源软件社区合作，共同创建软件。企业专业人士和开源软件社区成员之间的这种合作与软件开发的早期截然不同，在早期的软件开发中，营利性公司试图主宰和控制行业，同时试图扼杀提供替代开源选项的独立开发人员的成功。虽然贸易区、公共池资源和生态系统等许多比喻有助于理解这一现象，但这些比喻并没有描绘出转型前后的行业情况。我们采用后殖民比喻作为分析镜头，根据三年来从高管那里收集的定性数据来检验这种合作，公司内从事开源软件开发的经理和开发人员。基于这些见解，我们然后根据 Bhabha 提出的第三空间的概念，将“第三设计空间”理论化。这个比喻鼓励培育新的设计环境、创建新的设计协会和共享设计资源的流通。这些实践和行为相结合，可以培养创新方法和新习惯来设计软件，其结果和方法代表了与过去竞争和专有的明显背离，甚至创造了没有第三设计空间就无法创造的创新人工制品。”基于巴巴提出的第三空间概念。这个比喻鼓励培育新的设计环境、创建新的设计协会和共享设计资源的流通。这些实践和行为相结合，可以培养创新方法和新习惯来设计软件，其结果和方法代表了与过去竞争和专有的明显背离，甚至创造了没有第三设计空间就无法创造的创新人工制品。”基于巴巴提出的第三空间概念。这个比喻鼓励培育新的设计环境、创建新的设计协会和共享设计资源的流通。这些实践和行为相结合，可以培养创新方法和新习惯来设计软件，其结果和方法代表了与过去竞争和专有的明显不同，甚至可以创造出没有第三设计空间就无法创造的创新人工制品。