Resumen de Collaborative Development of Global Information Systems: Toward Community Based Generification

Elisabeth Johanna Fruijtier, Matthieu Pinard

• This paper examines generification in open source software development of information systems for low resource environments. The challenge addressed is that of designing generification processes in which key aspects of generification – information flow, selection and prioritisation – involve a distributed community. The objective of this study is to understand how this challenge is dealt with in practice, with the aim of expanding the current analytical scope available to researchers to study generification processes as well as the guidance available to practitioners to address its practical challenges. Doing so, we build on the work of Gizaw et al (forthcoming) who broach a debate on more ‘open’ generification. We propose a reconceptualization of open generification by being more specific on its conditions and process aspects. Open, we argue, is about closed generification circuits that enable a ‘community based’ generification process.