We live in a world of software, it is not only the pervasive infrastructure which makes everything work, but it is becoming a ubiquitous presence in our daily lives (Noble, 2007a, b). As such, it is a subject which warrants greater attention from researchers, from a broad range of academic perspectives and disciplines. Contemporary research trends reect a growing interest in studying software outside the narrow contextsof computer science and software engineering, and point to the emergence of a novel set of perspectives which treat software as an artifact which can be interrogated with respect to its origins, production, use, management, maintenance, interpretation, appropriation, etc. There are countless information trails which run through software, software repositories, and software systems. Identifying and studying these different trails often comes from the application of research perspectives, methods, and traditions from disciplines
outside of software engineering