User:Bbirkinbine

Benjamin J. Birkinbine is a researcher interested in the political economy of communications, information and communication technologies, free and open source software, peer-to-peer networks, and the commons. He received his PhD from the University of Oregon in 2014, and his dissertation focused on corporate involvement in free and open source software projects. The dissertation, titled "Incorporating the Commons: A Political Economic Analysis of Corporate Involvement in Free and Open Source Software Projects" focused on three case studies: 1) Microsoft's transition from opposition to support of open source software; 2) How Red Hat, Inc. has been able to become the largest and only publicly traded company operating solely in free software; and 3) the free and open source software community's response to Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The dissertation was composed using entirely free software with the exception of the final file export to PDF format, which was required by the university. The dissertation is and will be available via open access once it is processed by the university.