Working in Public

Open source software has undergone a significant shift over the past 20 years. Today, often unseen solo operators maintain code used by millions. In Working in Public, Nadia Eghbal takes an inside look at modern open source software development and its evolution over the last two decades—and its ramifications for an internet reorienting itself around individual creators. She examines GitHub as a platform; the structures, roles, incentives, and relationships of open source projects; and their heretofore unexplored maintenance, via the work that software requires of its creators and the costs of production that must be maintained. Open source offers us a model through which to understand the challenges faced by online creators on all platforms.