Describe: Free/Libre/ open source software is software production that collaborates and exchanges knowledge with others in order to improve software technology. F/LOSS has been described as, “[an] unpaid labor dependent on capitalist structures,… it primarily has attracted comparisons with alternative models of economic organizations [like] gift economics and barter economies.” Although anyone can participate only 1.5% of F/LOSS are females. The authors believe this may be so due to the way technology is created; women tended to be less experienced with technology and conducted, “less prestigious work and men exclusively monopolized the more prestigious technical decision making.” Some women would hide their gender in forums in order to find mentors. The articles concludes by stating that, “men and some women protect thus very specific form of openness, even if it means closing the doors, to those who do not fit , and even if it means establishing an epistemological monoculture, because this specific form of openness makes F/LOSS innovative and distinct from other forms of software production.
Contextualization/ Critically Engaged: This article is a perfect example of a digit divide. Women are seen as the minority within the open source software F/LOSS. The authors have a dystopian perspective, and concluded with no solution rather restated how women and minorities were being excluded within the digital field.
