A Constructivist View of Knowledge Management in Open Source Virtual Communities

Abstract

This chapter addresses a learning environment that is manifested in the domain offree/open source software development. It provides the base for the emergence,development, interactions, and management of a novel learning environment bytaking a constructivist view of knowledge management. The learning activities ofan online collaborative effort of a loosely and geographically disperse communityof individuals is explored by looking at the interactions between members of thecommunity, the tools used to communicate, and the interactions between the mem-bers of the community and the virtual learning context. The learning context asenvisaged here refers to the free/open source software development environment inwhich learning actually takes place. The main focus is on the resources and pur-poseful activities that promote collaborative learning in this context, as well as thetransfer of learning from the virtual setting to the real-life situation by involving ina collaborative activity.