Peer Innovation – Open-Source-Communities in the section of sustainability Working report 3
Technical solutions are open source if they are publicly accessible so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, produce and sell them. Open source projects exemplify the inventiveness and creative power of peer communities in the joint development and dissemination of new technologies. The research project PeerInnovation explores how data sets generated by peer communities interacting in online forums can be used to better capture and map their innovation activities. This study examines peer collaboration in the Open-Source-Communities OpenEnergyMonitor, OpenStreetMap and Precious Plastic as prominent case studies of peer innovation with relevance for sustainable development. The report uses quantitative and qualitative empirical methods of analysis to trace the online interaction of the communities, to describe and visualise the networks and to better understand their importance for the innovation process. The case studies show the diversity of the Open-Source-Communities and the variety of their contributions to socio-technical change. The development and dissemination of technical solutions is only one aspect with which these networks contribute to the emergence and social anchoring of sustainable innovations.
