open source and Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science

By Mentor Cana on July 5, 2003 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In my previous papers (media & communication) I tried to show that the open source concept/phenomenon and its communicative elements are innovative ideas, giving rise to open communication technology, enabling the masses to communicate free from elite’s control, possibly acting as antidotes to hegemonic ideology. To do so, I applied the constitutive view of communication, suggesting that open source is enabler of ‘free dissemination’ and open communication.

Recognizing Ranganathan’s five laws of Library Science and their underlying concepts as powerful inspirations for social change, I would like analyze the open source software, as defined by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), and its congruency with the five laws. If the underlying concepts upon which the five laws are built had such profound impact on our society, then the proponents of the open source movement can learn a thing or two. The actual definition of open source software is a lengthy one; instead, a summarized definition from the OSI’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) follows:

“Open source promotes software reliability and quality by supporting independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code. To be OSI certified the software must be distributed under a license that guarantees the right to read, redistribute, modify, and use the software freely” (The OSI).

A ‘book’ is the basic element of Ranaganathans laws: it contains objective knowledge. This calls for defining the comparative basic element of software development. Therefore, I will take the term ‘software’ to be the basic element: it contains objective knowledge. I have used the term ‘software’ loosely as it can mean a software product or software modules that can be used to build other software products. Respectively, the Five Laws of the ‘Software Library’ could be:

The First Law	Books are for use (Ranganathan, p. 26)	Software is for use
The Second Law	Every readers his or her book (or Books are for all) (Ranganathan, p. 81).	Every user his or her software (or software is for all)
The Third Law	Every book its reader. (Ranganathan, p. 258)	Every software its user
The Fourth Law	Save the time of the reader. (Ranganathan, p. 287)	Save the time of the user
The Fifth Law	Library is a growing organism (Ranganathan, p. 326)	A software Library is a growing organism Note: The American heritage Dictionary defines Library as it pertains to Computer Science in the following way: A collection of standard programs, routines, or subroutines, often related to a specific application, that are available for general use.

From personal experience as a user of open source software for non-profit activities, it seems as if the open source software movement is primarily interested with the producers/developers of the software, building tools for the effective exchange of software among the software developers, rather than with the end-users, those who just use the software. At first I thought that there is an additional element in the ‘information ecology’ related to software production, as there are two types of users of software: those that use software to build other software, and those that use software for other means, for example, to establish presence on the internet for non-profit activist organizations. This does not appear to be different than the users of books and similar artifacts: there are those that just read books to close an apparent ASK, and those who in additions to closing their own ASK might attempt to write a book with the intention of closing other people’s ASKs.

The OSI definition is congruent with the first law: Software is for use. The very reason open source software is developed is so it can be used. The second, third and the fourth law are dependent on the existence of the Software Library. Though there are repositories of various open source software online, the collections are not as organized as the Library system. Perhaps the open source movement can attempt to apply some lesson from the evolution of libraries in establishing and streamlining the Software Library concept, bearing in mind here that the producers and users of software are different than producers and users of books. Perhaps, in the near future this difference would not be as evident as today. Computers (personal, servers, wearable, etc.) might have even more prominent role in our daily lives. So, ‘visiting’ a Software Library and finding the most appropriate and relevant ‘software’ for closing one’s ASK in attempt to achieve a particular goal, would be as challenging, if not more challenging, for the user, as well as for the Software Library. We can just imagine the importance and power of bibliographic control over software in such information society, being that software has the potential to be more pervasive when compared to pervasiveness of books in our society. [194:601]

References:

Ranganathan, S. R. (1957). The five laws of library science. London: Blunt and Sons, Ltd. pp. 11-31, 80-87, 258-263, 287-291, 326-329.

The Open Source Initiative. (2001). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved October 20, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/faq.html