Project Description

Protest in an important element of free speech.

However, what happens when a maintainer feels empowered to sabotage their own OSS (Open Source Software) project in order to make a political stance?

OSS projects build reputation and trust over time, yet this trust can be damaged when maintainers use their influence in order to pursue political action.

In this social research project, I intend it perform a series of semi-structured interviews with experienced OSS maintainers in order to explore the ethical implications of protest, freedom of speech and trust within the open source community.

Goal for this Hackweek

Produce a literature review of the concept of Protestware, as well as core values of Open Source Software communities. Perform a series of semi-structured interviews with experienced OSS maintainers and developers.