Drupal as a case of Commons-based Peer Production

DrupalCamp North East 2014 (Sunderland, 25/07/2014).

With more than 1 million users registered at Drupal.org, more than 30.000 commiters, dozens of Drupalcamps being held worldwide, Drupalcons in 4 continents, etc. the Drupal community represents one of the most vibrant examples of the success of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). The expansion of some of the FLOSS principles and modes of production into other areas such as collaborative creation, hacklabs, P2P economy, etc. is attracting the attention of many researchers. Yochai Benkler (professor at Harvard Law School) coined the term Commons-Based Peer Production, to describe a new model of socio-economic production in which a large number of individuals coordinate to produce meaningful and complex products in a peer-based way, usually with the help of low cost integration mechanisms, such as
the Internet.

The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of the research that has been carried out about Drupal and its community in the past years. I present some insights on why the work carried out by the Drupal community can be understood as part of a wider phenomena, and reflect on what could be learnt from this ongoing experience.