An approach to investigating proactive knowledge retention in OSS communities

Open Source Software (OSS) is the manifestation of software developed and released under an “open source” license, meaning that under certain conditions; it is openly available for use, inspection, modification, and for redistribution free of cost, or with cost based on the license agreement. The transient nature of the OSS work force results in turnover induced knowledge loss in OSS projects. In this work, we examine the research methodology, which will contribute to the formation of proactive knowledge retention practices in OSS projects to transform contributor’s use of knowledge and engagement in knowledge relevant activities including knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer

A mechanism to explore proactive knowledge retention in open source software communities.

Open-source software (OSS) is a type of computer software wherein the source code is distributed under a special type of licence in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to inspect, alter, and redistribute the software. OSS projects are collaborative endeavours which have multiple contributors who are constantly joining, leaving, or changing their role in the project. This ever-changing and ever-transient nature of OSS project contributors contributes to a contributor turnover-induced knowledge loss in OSS projects. In this case, “knowledge loss” refers to the phenomenon of the loss of project-specific knowledge, experience, and expertise in an OSS project, caused by contributors regularly joining and leaving the OSS project. This paper describes the design and development of a robust research methodology and contributes towards the formation of proactive knowledge retention practices in OSS projects to transform contributor's use of knowledge and engagement in knowledge-relevant activities including knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer

A systematic examination of knowledge loss in open source software projects

Context Open Source Software (OSS) development is a knowledge focused activity which relies heavily on contributors who can be volunteers or paid workers and are geographically distributed. While working on OSS projects contributors acquire project related individualistic knowledge and gain experience and skills, which often remains unshared with others and is usually lost once contributors leave a project. All software development organisations face the problem of knowledge loss as employees leave, but this situation is exasperated in OSS projects where most contributors are volunteers with largely unpredictable engagement durations. Contributor turnover is inevitable due to the transient nature of OSS project workforces causing knowledge loss, which threatens the overall sustainability of OSS projects and impacts negatively on software quality and contributor productivity. Objective The objective of this work is to deeply and systematically investigate the phenomenon of knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects as presented in the state-of-the-art literature and to synthesise the information presented on the topic. Furthermore, based on the learning arising from our investigation it is our intention to identify mechanisms to reduce the overall effects of knowledge loss in OSS projects. Methodology We use the snowballing methodology to identify the relevant literature on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects. This robust methodology for a literature review includes research question, search strategy, inclusion, exclusion, quality criteria, and data synthesis. The search strategy, and inclusion, exclusions and quality criteria are applied as a part of snowballing procedure. Snowballing is considered an efficient and reliable way to conduct a systematic literature review, providing a robust alternative to mechanically searching individual databases for given topics. Result Knowledge sharing in OSS projects is abundant but there is no evidence of a formal strategy or practice to manage knowledge. Due to the dynamic and diverse nature of OSS projects, knowledge management is considered a challenging task and there is a need for a proactive mechanism to share knowledge in the OSS community for knowledge to be reused in the future by the OSS project contributors. From the collection of papers found using snowballing, we consolidated various themes on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects and identified 11 impacts due to knowledge loss in OSS projects, and 10 mitigations to manage with knowledge loss in OSS projects. Conclusion In this paper, we propose future research directions to investigate integration of proactive knowledge retention practices with the existing OSS practices to reduce the current knowledge loss problem. We suggest that there is insufficient attention paid to KM in general in OSS, in particular there would appear to an absence of proactive measures to reduce the potential impact of knowledge loss. We also propose the need for a KM evaluation metric in OSS projects, similar to the ones that evaluate health of online communities, which should help to inform potential consumers of the OSS of the KM status on a project, something that is not existent today

Impact of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports on At-Risk, Black Male Students\u27 Academic Performance

Black male students have experienced disproportionate disciplinary actions at higher rates compared to male students of other races, which has an at-risk effect on academic achievement because of lost instructional time, poor student-teacher relationships, and decreased motivation to learn. Implementing Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) could help to reduce the time spent out of class due to a disciplinary issue, thus increasing the opportunity to learn. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to determine the impact of PBIS on academic achievement and frequency of office disciplinary referrals (ODR) in a PBIS and non-PBIS alternative middle school. The sample consisted of 54 eighth grade Black male students, 24 who attended a PBIS and 30 who attended a non-PBIS middle school during the 2013-2014 school year. The researcher collected and analyzed data from both groups, which involved the examination of archival data to determine the mean test scores on the 2014 Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) Grade 8, Reading and Mathematics. This study examined if there was a statistically significant difference in mean test scores and frequencies of ODR between a PBIS and non-PBIS alternative middle school. Results of this study determined that there is no statistically significant difference in the academic achievement and frequency of ODRs in eighth grade Black male students who attended a PBIS or non-PBIS alternative middle school

The Impact of the Dual-Enrollment Modality on Subsequent Collegiate Performance

Dual-enrollment College Algebra is offered in three modalities: at the college, at the high school, and online. The purpose of this study was to examine if the dual-enrollment College Algebra modality impacts early collegiate performance. A program evaluation was conducted using a causal-comparative design to explore potential cause-and-effect relationships between the dual-enrollment College Algebra modalities and five outcomes. The population included Oklahoma State System of Higher Education students who completed dual-enrollment College Algebra and subsequently earned freshman College Algebra postrequisite math grades, freshman College Algebra postrequisite science grades, or college credit in the fall semester after high school graduation. One-way ANOVA and chi-square analyses were applied to determine if there were statistically significant differences among students who completed College Algebra within the three dual-enrollment modalities using: freshman College Algebra postrequisite math grades and D, F, and Withdraw (DFW) grade rates; freshman College Algebra postrequisite science grades and DFW grade rates; and first-semester freshman grade point averages (GPAs). No statistically significant differences were observed in the four aforementioned freshman College Algebra postrequisite outcomes. These results suggest that the dual-enrollment College Algebra modality may not influence College Algebra postrequisite math and science performance. Conversely, significant differences were observed in first-semester freshman GPAs. Students who completed dual-enrollment College Algebra at the high school earned significantly lower first-semester freshman GPAs than students who completed dual-enrollment College Algebra online and at the college. These results suggest that the high school dual-enrollment College Algebra modality may negatively influence first-semester freshman GPAs

Company soldiers and gone-natives: role conflict and career ambition among firm-employed open source developers

Software companies are increasingly shifting their role in open source software (OSS) projects from passive adopters to active contributors, and creators of OSS projects. Many firms now employ developers to work on OSS projects to influence their further development. These developers may gain considerable influence in OSS communities, though this typically takes a long time. Previous research found that those individual developers’ agendas are not always aligned to that of the firm. While so-called “company soldiers” strongly identify with their firm, other developers may have “gone native”: they identify more strongly with the OSS community rather than the firm. We study the effect of such an imbalance of identification on firm-community role conflict, which may lead to an intention to quit either the firm or the OSS community. We also consider the moderating effects of developers’ career ambitions on this relationship. Furthermore, we include the effects of developers’ desired career paths on their intentions to quit the firm and community. We test our model using a sample of 177 firm-employed OSS developers, and find that identification imbalance is associated with firm-community role conflict and that these conflicts drive both intentions to quit the firm and the community. Other findings include a significant negative moderating effect of developers’ firm career aspirations on the relation between role conflict and intentions to quit the firm. Several of our hypotheses were not supported, but we found “regions of significance,” which suggests several avenues for further research. We conclude with recommendations for managing firm-community relationships

The Academic Impact of Suspension on Black Male Students in an Urban High School

The focus of this research was the academic impact of school suspension on Black male students in an urban high school. Findings for the study were derived from archival data retrieved with permission from the school district that served as the site of the study. The performance of 400 Black male students in the 2015 cohort of eight high schools on the New York State Algebra Regents exam was analyzed to determine whether suspension from school affected achievement as measured by the passing score on an exam which determined successful high school completion and academic success. The implications of these findings for Black males, both socially and economically, as compared to their White and Hispanic counterparts, as well as Black females are discussed. Research suggests that the policies that limit educational opportunities for Black males decrease the probability of their employment prospects, while increasing the need for welfare services, the future rate of incarceration in prisons, and the potential for commitment to psychiatric institutions. The findings from this study could inform understanding of the impact of the policy of school suspension, one of several policies which limit educational opportunities for Black male students. Implications of the study include alternative approaches to addressing student behavior in high schools and adjustment to the delivery of Math curriculum and instruction to ensure it is culturally sensitive to the diverse needs and backgrounds of all students

Disrupting the School-To-Prison Pipeline: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review of Alternative Discipline Practices to Reduce Exclusion and Promote Equity

Zero tolerance policies were designed to create safety by implementing automatic exclusion (e.g., suspensions, expulsions) for misbehavior in response to rising school violence in the United States. However, evidence over the past four decades shows that these policies fail to increase objective and subjective safety, and instead foster poor school climate and disproportionate rates of minority groups in the school-to-prison pipeline. Previous research and literature reviews suggest there are a host of developing Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) practices that have promising potential to reduce exclusionary outcomes and foster equitable treatment of vulnerable student populations, such as Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports and Restorative Practices. This mixed methods systematic review collates available data regarding the effectiveness of various MTSS interventions as alternative discipline practices that intend to replace or reduce exclusionary outcomes in schools. This review identifies both the quantitative outcomes for each universal, secondary, and tertiary non-exclusionary disciplinary intervention, as well as the qualitative processes and perspectives associated with each MTSS strategy, such as subjective impact, acceptability, feasibility, and implementation barriers and facilitators across multiple types of stakeholders. Studies included in this systematic review were limited to peer-reviewed research in United States general education K-12 settings published in 1997 and later in order to capture the most relevant, high-quality work on this topic. This systematic review incorporates school-level, staff-level, and student-level effects and perspectives across multiple types of study design, therefore highlighting prevalent themes across various practices so that these strategies can be more easily replicated in under-resourced settings with access to less support. In order to ensure more unbiased assessment of the evidence, the quality of each study\u27s reporting, methodology, and evidence are discussed to frame how strongly these findings should be taken into consideration when drawing conclusions. Each of the 59 studies is discussed in terms of its design, setting, population, intervention focus and MTSS tier, methods, and outcomes, followed by an overview of the shared characteristics and key findings across studies. While conclusions are limited by the available study designs and comparisons between interventions, recommendations are provided for administrators, educations, and practitioners in schools moving forward, as well as directions for future research on what we still need to know about alternative discipline practices to reduce exclusion and promote equity. Key themes for future implementers include: promoting school-wide culture change through relationship-building; using behavioral strategies to incentivize positive behaviors; implementing brief teacher-focused trainings to enhance empathy, cultural responsiveness, and awareness of implicit bias; offering trauma-informed trainings to enhance contextual awareness; providing ongoing professional development to prevent initiative fatigue ; selecting core common practices across interventions to simplify implementation and reduce burden; tailoring interventions to fit students\u27 developmental level; and involving stakeholders in development, implementation, and evaluation of these interventions. Implications for implementation science and disability critical race theory are also discussed

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Harnessing Knowledge, Innovation and Competence in Engineering of Mission Critical Systems

This book explores the critical role of acquisition, application, enhancement, and management of knowledge and human competence in the context of the largely digital and data/information dominated modern world. Whilst humanity owes much of its achievements to the distinct capability to learn from observation, analyse data, gain insights, and perceive beyond original realities, the systematic treatment of knowledge as a core capability and driver of success has largely remained the forte of pedagogy. In an increasingly intertwined global community faced with existential challenges and risks, the significance of knowledge creation, innovation, and systematic understanding and treatment of human competence is likely to be humanity's greatest weapon against adversity. This book was conceived to inform the decision makers and practitioners about the best practice pertinent to many disciplines and sectors. The chapters fall into three broad categories to guide the readers to gain insight from generic fundamentals to discipline-specific case studies and of the latest practice in knowledge and competence management