Free software communities as an example of open communities and education networks

Over the past decade, scientific research has attempted to understand the success and the spread of communities that have been created and developed thanks to Internet technology. Education studies have also analysed the importance of these communities in spreading and sharing knowledge and educational culture has looked to these organizational forms for inspiration. At the same time, the link between these experiences and the development of pedagogical models emerging from cognitive sciences, systemic theory and the new forms of constructivism, which have generated a fruitful theory/practice circle, has been reinforced. The aim of this paper is to analyse the particular type of organizational, communicative and productive context of Open Communities: Free Software Communities, to understand how they work, their efficacy and to show their close link with dynamics and relations of an educational, formative and didactic type. Learning communities can still learn strategies of communication, organization and socialization from these communities, as well as the value of motivation and the importance of freedom and circulation of knowledge in order to build up efficient communities. We can also gain the understanding that the success of these communities depends on the fact that they are educational communities, therefore education studies can convey values, models and a culture of sharing to other sectors as well, such as the one taken into consideration: Free Software Communities. The study has been conducted with a research methodology of the phenomenological type thanks to a theoretical study and observation of different free software communities, visiting websites, chats, wiki pages, forums and other channels of discussion and collaboration.