Dar, receber e retribuir: saberes compartilhados e dádiva na comunidade de software livre e de código aberto.

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand the network of collaboration and exchange of knowledge in the computer-mediated environment formed around Free and Open Source Softwares. The research, performed in a virtual environment, brings as a cut, the look directed at the activities of users who, in native language, are known as "enthusiasts", a heterogeneous group, often from areas of knowledge other than computing, that devote part of their time to learning, teaching and military in favor of the dissemination of collaborative initiatives in the use of computational technologies, articulating formative processes. The interpretations of the actions of these enthusiasts and the way they develop their activities are analyzed from Marcel Mauss and his current readings on the Gift, a system of interpersonal exchanges based on the threefold obligation to give, receive and reciprocate. The methodological path chosen, the interpretation of data collected in a virtual environment, will be based on the discussions put forward by the anthropology of cyberspace.