Autopoiesis and Open Access Repositories
Malgorzata Bogumila Pankowska · International Journal for e-Learning Security · 2011
In this paper the relevance of the theory of autopoiesis is discussed for understanding the evolution of open digital repositories.The autopiesis is a metaphor which explains three themes 1) how systems construct and maintain their own components 2) how the systems deal with changes that are destructive to their identity 3) how the system's organization and its identity are shaped.The theory draws attention to the dynamics that constitute the process of evolution, instead of focusing on the outcomes of the process of evolution.The ideas are illustrated by case studies of research community information systems that are autopoietic.