Les communautés virtuelles : la coordination sans proximité ? Les fondements de la coopération au sein des communautés du logiciel libre

Without pre-existing organisational proximity nor geographical one, Free and Open Source software communities fulfil effective and voluntary cooperation in order to produce software which are reliable and broadly diffused. Throwing out the technological determinism thesis, this paper analyses the pregnance of institutionnal proximity inside communities, which creates voluntary agreed set of coordination rules (organisational proximity) and allows geographical proximity freeing. Classification JEL : L23, L39, L86, 031, R19.