Today’s web allows for extensive collaboration, not least within digital journalism. This study examines GitHub as a trading zone―a space in which different actors can gather, agree on rules of exchange, and engage in complex, coordinated activity around the boundary object of “news.” It identifies the types of actors that have oriented themselves around journalism-related projects; evaluates how and the extent to which they have collaborated with others; and assesses the goals (or outcomes) of their endeavors. The study combines an analysis of API data collected about 88,776 GitHub repositories with a manual content analysis of a subset of accounts and projects. It finds that the space is primarily occupied by actors not associated with news organizations; that they focus on projects advancing technological solutions for news distribution; that collaboration, while technically possible, is not widespread; and that the repositories are rarely associated with licenses that promote open-source development.

Haim, M. & Zamith, R. (5/2019). Open-source Trading Zones and Boundary Objects: Examining GitHub as a space for advancing and collaborating on "news". Presented at the 69th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Washington D.C. (content_copy)