Free/Open Source Software projects as early MOOCs

This paper presents Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) Projects as early Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). Being software development a process where learning and collaboration is of major importance, FLOSS projects have in common many characteristics with MOOCs. This is because many FLOSS projects (such as Linux, Apache, GNOME or KDE, among others) are massive, they are open to anyone to participate, and are driven mainly by telematic means. We therefore present the research literature that has studied FLOSS projects from points of view that are close to learning and discuss how the FLOSS community has approached many of the issues related to acquiring knowledge and skills over the Internet and compare them to how currently MOOCs, both xMOOCs and cMOOCs, address these situations.