A framework for creating hybrid-open source software communities

Abstract The open source software (OSS) model is a fundamentally new and revolutionary way to develop software. The success of the OSS model is also setting the stage for a structural change in the software industry; it is beginning to transform software industry from manufacturing to a service industry. Despite the success of the OSS model, for‐profit organizations are having difficulty building a business model around the open source paradigm. Whereas there are some isolated empirical studies, little rigorous research has been done on how traditional organizations can implement and benefit from OSS practices. This research explores how organizations can foster an environment similar to OSS to manage their software development efforts to reap its numerous advantages. Drawing on organizational theory, we develop a framework that guides the creation and management of a hybrid‐OSS community within an organization. We discuss the implications of this framework and suggest areas for future research.     

开源软件FreeBSD内核进化研究

摘要：归纳开源软件项目的数据源及数据收集方法,给出FreeBSD内核的软件进化分析方法和相关分析结果。重点分析了FreeBSD系统和主要子系统的复杂性进化趋势及推动进化的主要原因,提出了快速测算大型开源软件复杂性的方法。     

Comparing practices for reuse in integration‐oriented software product lines and large open source software projects

This article compares the organization and practices for software reuse in integration‐oriented software product lines (SPLs) and open source software projects. The main observation is that both approaches are successful regarding large variability and reuse, but differ widely in their practices and organization. To capture practices in large open source projects, we describe an open compositional model, which reflects their more decentralized organization of software development. We capture key practices and organizational forms for this and validate these by comparing four case studies of this model. Two of these studies are based on published SPL case studies, for the other two we analyze the practices in two large and successful open source projects based on their published developer documentation. Our analysis highlights key differences between the practices in the two open source organizations and the more integrational practices used in the other two cases. Finally, we discuss which practices are successful in which environment and how the current practices can move towards more open, widely scoped and distributed software development. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effort, co-operation and co-ordination in an open source software project: GNOME

Abstract This paper presents results from research into open source projects from a software engineering perspective. The research methodology employed relies on public data retrieved from the CVS repository of the GNOME project and relevant discussion groups. This methodology is described, and results concerning the special characteristics of open source software development are given. These data are used for a first approach to estimating the total effort to be expended.     

大型自由和开源软件进化研究

大型自由和开源软件的各种版本源代码和相关开发信息是软件工程研究者研究开源软件项目的重要数据源.归纳开源软件项目的数据源及数据收集方法,给出Linux、FreeBSD操作系统内核的软件进化的分析方法和相关分析结果.重点分析了系统和主要子系统的复杂性进化趋势及推动进化主要原因,提出了快速测算大型开源软件复杂性的方法.得出系统目前以超线性方式进化,而进化的主要推动力是适应系统硬件资源的进化.     

教育信息化领域中开源软件的应用策略研究

开源软件因其源代码开放、免费、易于定制等特性,非常适合教育信息化领域的需求。文章阐述了开源软件的概念及特征,分析了开源软件在国内外教育领域中的研究与应用现状,最后提出了开源软件在我国教育信息化领域中的应用策略。     

Code quality analysis in open source software development

Abstract Proponents of open source style software development claim that better software is produced using this model compared with the traditional closed model. However, there is little empirical evidence in support of these claims. In this paper, we present the results of a pilot case study aiming: (a) to understand the implications of structural quality; and (b) to figure out the benefits of structural quality analysis of the code delivered by open source style development. To this end, we have measured quality characteristics of 100 applications written for Linux, using a software measurement tool, and compared the results with the industrial standard that is proposed by the tool. Another target of this case study was to investigate the issue of modularity in open source as this characteristic is being considered crucial by the proponents of open source for this type of software development. We have empirically assessed the relationship between the size of the application components and the delivered quality measured through user satisfaction. We have determined that, up to a certain extent, the average component size of an application is negatively related to the user satisfaction for this application.     

The factors that affect the performance of open source software development – the perspective of social capital and expertise integration

Drawing on social capital theory, we develop a theoretical model aiming to explore how open source software (OSS) project effectiveness (in terms of team size, team effort and team's level of completion) is affected by expertise integration. This in turn is influenced by three types of social capital – relational capital, cognitive capital and structural capital. In addition, this study also examines two moderating effects – the impact of technical complexity on the relationship between cognitive capital and expertise integration, and of task interdependence on the relationship between expertise integration and task completion. Through a field survey of 160 OSS members from five Taiwanese communities, there is support for some of the proposed hypotheses. Both reciprocity and centrality affect expertise integration as expected, but the influence of commitment and cognitive capital (including expertise and tenure) on expertise integration is not significant. Finally, expertise integration affects both team size and team effort, which in turn jointly influence task completion. This research contributes to advancing theoretical understanding of the effectiveness of free OSS development as well as providing OSS practitioners with insight into how to leverage social capital for improving the performance of OSS development.     

开源软件生产的网络化创新系统研究

从系统工程、经济学和生态学的角度分析了开源软件社区的内在创新机理。首先,基于系统学理论定义了开源软件生产系统的概念;然后通过分析开源软件与私有软件生产系统的差异,归纳了开源生产行为的经济学特征;最后基于耗散结构理论和复杂科学理论提出了创新熵来度量开源社区的创新效能,并进一步揭示了开源社区网络创新的内在演化机理。     

JSMAA: open source software for SMAA computations

Most software for multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) implement a small set of compatible methods as a closed monolithic program. With such software tools, the decision models have to be input by hand. In some applications, however, the model can be generated using external information sources, and thus it would be beneficial if the MCDA software could integrate in the comprehensive information infrastructure. This article motivates for the need of model generation in the methodological context of stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA), and describes the JSMAA software that implements SMAA-2, SMAA-O and SMAA-TRI methods. JSMAA is an open source and divided in separate graphical user interface and library components, enabling its use in systems with a model generation subsystem.     

The power of gifts: organizing social relationships in open source communities

Abstract. In writings on the open source software development model, it is often argued that it is successful as a result of the gift economy that embraces activities in online communities. However, the theoretical foundations for this argument are seldom discussed and empirically tested. Starting with the 'classic' theories of gift giving, we discuss how they need to be developed in order to explain gift-giving practices in digital domains. In this paper, we argue that the gift economy is important, not only because it creates openness, but also because it organizes relationships between people in a certain way. Open source software development relies on gift giving as a way of getting new ideas and prototypes out into circulation. This also implies that the giver gets power from giving away. This power is used as a way of guaranteeing the quality of the code. We relate this practice to how gifts, in the form of new scientific knowledge, are given to the research community, and how this is done through peer review processes.     

A systematic review of research on open source software in commercial software product development

Context

The popularity of the open source software development in the last decade, has brought about an increased interest from the industry on how to use open source components, participate in the open source community, build business models around this type of software development, and learn more about open source development methodologies. There is a need to understand the results of research in this area.

Objective

Since there is a need to understand conducted research, the aim of this study is to summarize the findings of research that has ben carried out on usage of open source components and development methodologies by the industry, as well as companies’ participation in the open source community.

Method

Systematic review through searches in library databases and manual identification of articles from the open source conference. The search was first carried out in May 2009 and then once again in May 2010.

Results

In 2009, 237 articles were first found, from which 19 were selected based on content and quality, and in 2010, 76 new articles were found from which four were selected. Twenty three articles were identified in total.

Conclusions

The articles could be divided into four categories: open source as part of component based software engineering, business models with open source in commercial organization, company participation in open source development communities, and usage of open source processes within a company.     

Putting it all in the trunk: incremental software development in the FreeBSD open source project

Abstract. Software development in the FreeBSD project is incremental in the sense that a stream of contributions, including bugfixes and minor and major new features, go into a single branch in the repository, the development branch (or 'trunk'), and are required to preserve the software in a working state. This creates a succession of development releases, akin to the practice of frequent releasing argued by Eric S. Raymond in his essay 'The Cathedral and the Bazaar' to be the key to the success of Linux and other open source projects. The positive and negative impact of this approach is discussed based on a survey involving 72 project participants. On the positive side, the data indicate that it creates a highly motivating 'see bug, fix bug, see bug fixed in new release' life cycle, and helps integrate bugfixing with new development. On the negative side, the data indicates that the highly incremental model does not support the development of complex new features.     

开源软件社区知识协作网络核心开发者识别

开源软件社区中开发者是流动的,有效识别出核心开发者并对其采取保护措施能够更好地促进社区集体智慧涌现.以开源软件项目AngularJS为例,通过获取开发者在GitHub上的提交记录,抽取开发者协作关系构建知识协作网络,运用社会网络分析的方法,在原有度中心性和介数中心性指标的基础上,将开发者节点的社团结构考虑进来提出新的评价指标.采用TOPSIS多属性决策方法进行核心开发者识别.仿真模拟核心开发者的流失,探究识别效果.研究发现:考虑社团结构的指标和以往指标识别出的核心开发者具有较大的相似性,和真实名单对比均具有一定的准确性,但在重要性排序上考虑社团结构的指标体系识别效果更显著.     

A text categorisation tool for open source communities based on semantic analysis

Open source software (OSS) projects are supported by communities interacting through software repositories and mailing lists. Thousands of contributors participate in the development of the projects although they rarely meet each other. The result is a huge archived repository with thousands of questions, answers and contributions usually difficult to explore. We propose a tool based on semantic analysis for both performing an automatic knowledge discovery and a categorisation of the content of mailing lists repositories. Semantic analysis is a practical method for extracting and inferring relations of words in passages of discourse, producing measures of relations among words or passages that are well correlated with semantic similarity. The objective of this article is two-fold: (1) to develop a text categorisation tool based on indexing terms and semantic annotation, and (2) to apply the developed tool to extract the main dimensions related to knowledge sharing activities in virtual communities. Debian Linux ports to embedded processors are used as a case study to accomplish the proposed double objective.     

A strategic analysis for successful open source software utilization based on a structural equation model

Commercial software companies face many challenges when competing in today’s fast moving and competitive industry environment. Recently, the use of open source software (OSS) has been proposed as a possible way to address those challenges. OSS provides many benefits, including high-quality software and substantial profits. Nevertheless, OSS has not been effectively utilized in real business. The purpose of this paper is to find what affects the utilization of OSS. For this study, we propose a structural equation model (SEM) to analyze the relationships between the quality factors based on ISO/IEC 9126 and OSS utilization. In addition, we suggest an open source software utilization index (OSSUI) based on the proposed SEM. The results provide us with the controllable feedback information to improve user (programmer) satisfaction during OSS utilization.     

Open source software: The effects of training on acceptance

Open Source Software (OSS) is an alternative to proprietary software. It is growing in popularity, which has brought about an increase in research interest. Most of the research studies have focused on identifying individual personal motives for participating in the development of an OSS project, analyzing specific solutions, or the OSS movement, itself. No studies have been found which have undertaken research on the impact of user experience and training on OSS. The study reported here sought to identify factors that predict acceptance of technologies based on OSS after training in these solutions. A research model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989) was developed. Furthermore, the possible moderating effects of users’ gender, age and level of education were analyzed. It was found that external determinants such as user training, user fit, technological complexity and trainers’ support were important indicators in the success of adopting these solutions.     

The Basin of Mexico Hydrogeological Database (BMHDB): Implementation, queries and interaction with open source software

Integrated Water Management at the Basin level is a concept that was introduced in the 1990s and is a goal in every national and local water management plan. Unfortunately this goal has not been achieved mainly due to a lack of both tools and data management, as data must be gathered from different sources and in different formats. Compounding this problem is the fact that in some regions different water agencies are in charge of water supply as is the case in the Basin of Mexico, in which Mexico City and its Metropolitan Zone are located. The inhabitants of the Basin of Mexico, which comprises five different political entities and in which different agencies are in charge of water supply rely on the Basin's aquifer system as its main water supply source. However, a regional hydrogeological database in this area does not exist which is why the use of both a Relational Database Management System (RDMBS) and a Geographic Information System (GIS) is proposed in order to improve regional data management in the study area. Data stored in this new database, the Basin of Mexico Hydrogeological Database (BMHDB) comprise data on climatological, borehole and run-off variables, readily providing information for the development of hydrogeological models. A simple example is used to show how geostatistical analysis can be done using the data directly from the BMHDB. The structure of the BMHDB allows easy maintenance and updating, representing a valuable tool for the development of regional studies.     

A systematic literature review on the barriers faced by newcomers to open source software projects

ContextNumerous open source software projects are based on volunteers collaboration and require a continuous influx of newcomers for their continuity. Newcomers face barriers that can lead them to give up. These barriers hinder both developers willing to make a single contribution and those willing to become a project member.ObjectiveThis study aims to identify and classify the barriers that newcomers face when contributing to open source software projects.MethodWe conducted a systematic literature review of papers reporting empirical evidence regarding the barriers that newcomers face when contributing to open source software (OSS) projects. We retrieved 291 studies by querying 4 digital libraries. Twenty studies were identified as primary. We performed a backward snowballing approach, and searched for other papers published by the authors of the selected papers to identify potential studies. Then, we used a coding approach inspired by open coding and axial coding procedures from Grounded Theory to categorize the barriers reported by the selected studies.ResultsWe identified 20 studies providing empirical evidence of barriers faced by newcomers to OSS projects while making a contribution. From the analysis, we identified 15 different barriers, which we grouped into five categories: social interaction, newcomers’ previous knowledge, finding a way to start, documentation, and technical hurdles. We also classified the problems with regard to their origin: newcomers, community, or product.ConclusionThe results are useful to researchers and OSS practitioners willing to investigate or to implement tools to support newcomers. We mapped technical and non-technical barriers that hinder newcomers’ first contributions. The most evidenced barriers are related to socialization, appearing in 75% (15 out of 20) of the studies analyzed, with a high focus on interactions in mailing lists (receiving answers and socialization with other members). There is a lack of in-depth studies on technical issues, such as code issues. We also noticed that the majority of the studies relied on historical data gathered from software repositories and that there was a lack of experiments and qualitative studies in this area.