Software: Product or Knowledge?

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Product
Knowledge
Conclusion
Works cited

Introduction

To answer the question of whether software is a product or generally knowledge, we need to first equip ourselves on the basics of products and knowledge. From an economic perspective, products may be termed as goods while knowledge may be taken to be a service (Wessels, p. 14). A product may be produced and packed while a service can only be produced but cannot be packed. First, the term product refers to the end product from a process, which is to be offered to the market to satisfy particular needs or wants. With this notion of products, comes the notion of knowledge. For one to produce something and offer it to the market, it must be based on some prior acquired knowledge. Once we acquire knowledge, then it is subjected to some processes combined with law materials, to come up with a product. However we cannot ignore the fact that knowledge is also produced. Generally we have two different ways of producing knowledge. It can be produced through research and development, or learning online (Foray, p. 49). In our case, software is a product of some prior acquired knowledge (programming), whether it is offered for free or sold. From an economic perspective, production is usually motivated by market demand of a product. However, free software is not motivated by demand but instead; their production is carried out by voluntary private programmers (Schroder & Bitzer, p. 2). This essay is divided into two parts, first I will explain why software is a product and secondary I will explain why it is not knowledge.

Product

I would define a product as the end product of the process of combining knowledge and resources. Using this rough but correct definition of the term product it is evident. A product undergoes transformation from its original form before it becomes a product. In transformation, it means that resources enter the process and lose their nature, i.e. they change their original form (Frisch, p. 3; Duffy, p. 9). As earlier stated, production is necessitated by market demand. Though free software is not motivated by demand, the user can only the end user can only desire to acquire it if a need for it arises. Therefore, though it is offered for free, a need to use it makes the consumer make a step of acquiring it. In most cases, however, the open source software is future demand motivated. The developers are in most cases not satisfied with existing software or features that do not exist in software currently available. Free software produced y volunteers is a public good (Schroder & Bitzer, p. 57). In their book ‘the economics of open software development’ Schroder & Bitzer, clearly shows us why the open source software is a product, which may be of better quality than the commercial software. In this book, Schroder & Bitzer refer to the process of preparing this software as ‘producing’. We all know that anything that is produced is a product. Without any doubt, from their work in this book, software is unarguably a product.

Knowledge

According to the oxford English dictionary, knowledge is expertise and/ or skills that a person acquires through experience or training. Knowledge deals with the theoretical understanding of concepts. From this definition, we can say that the software developers possess knowledge in that field of study. The software however is the product of the knowledge. Therefore software is in fact not knowledge but a product of knowledge. It does not matter whether it is offered for free or for sale. Knowledge can be shared among the producer and the consumer in equal quantities. As the saying goes “sell me a cake and I own it, sell me a recipe and we both own it”. In this respect he cake is a product of the knowledge acquired in cooking, while a recipe is a piece of knowledge. Likewise software is a product of knowledge in programming but it is not the knowledge itself (Helmstadter, pp. 11-15). If for example a volunteer programmer offers to train a person on the process of software production, then he / she will have given out knowledge but not the product. But when he or she gives out already programmed software, t5hen in this case he she has given out a product but not knowledge. Often, open source software. Knowledge is an intellectual property which is protected by the intellectual property rights (foray, p. 131). Knowledge is ntellectual in nature. In order to be in a position to use knowledge acquired, you need to internalize it well in your cognitive domains. However, when it comes to open source software, the user can just access it online and go ahead using it, without understanding what it is. One only requires the knowledge of installing the software. This shows that the accessed software does not amount to knowledge.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that the question of whether software especially the open source software is product or knowledge is best explained from the definition of the terms product and knowledge as explained above. Moreover, it is clear that software undergoes the process of production i.e. programming, where prior acquired knowledge is combined with human resources and other resources such the computer hardware to produce it. This process makes the software qualify to be a product.

Works cited

Duffy, John. Economics. Newyork: Wiley Publishing, 1994. Print. 95
Foray, Dominique. Economics of knowledge. Paris: MIT Press, 2004. Print
Frisch, Ragnar. Theory of production. Amsterdam: Springer, 1964. Print.
Helmstadter, Ernst. The economics of knowledge sharing: a new institution approach. Massachusetts: Edward Elgar, 2003. Print
Schroder, Philipp & Bitzer, Jurgen. The economics of open source software development. Amsterdam: Emerald Group Publishing, 2006. Print
Wessels, Walter. Economics. London: Baron Education, 2006. Print

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Software: Product or Knowledge?

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