The Term Open Source Software Re-negotiated

Implementing Open Source Software (OSS) technology (tools and practices) entails potential for radical organisational transformation of software production. Not going there yet, this paper discusses the local re-negotiation of the term OSS itself in certain case companies. We claim that these processes (1. organisational change, and 2. renegotiation of the term OSS) are intertwined. Renegotiation of the term is needed in order to create an understanding of what it means to leverage OSS locally. Based on a systematic literature review, we investigate two cases to outline what kind of renegotiation of the term occurs when a company alters it's software production. Initial findings indicate that future research on organizational OSS may benefit from a more critical review of the processes occurring under the term OSS.