231,133 research outputs found
Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers
The maintenance and evolution of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS)
projects demand the constant attraction of core developers. In this paper, we
report the results of a survey with 52 developers, who recently became core
contributors of popular GitHub projects. We reveal their motivations to assume
a key role in FLOSS projects (e.g., improving the projects because they are
also using it), the project characteristics that most helped in their
engagement process (e.g., a friendly community), and the barriers faced by the
surveyed core developers (e.g., lack of time of the project leaders). We also
compare our results with related studies about others kinds of open source
contributors (casual, one-time, and newcomers).Comment: Accepted at CHASE 2018: 11th International Workshop on Cooperative
and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (8 pages
Open innovation using open source tools: a case study at Sony Mobile
Despite growing interest of Open Innovation (OI) in Software Engineering
(SE), little is known about what triggers software organizations to adopt it
and how this affects SE practices. OI can be realized in numerous of ways,
including Open Source Software (OSS) involvement. Outcomes from OI are not
restricted to product innovation but also include process innovation, e.g.
improved SE practices and methods. This study explores the involvement of a
software organization (Sony Mobile) in OSS communities from an OI perspective
and what SE practices (requirements engineering and testing) have been adapted
in relation to OI. It also highlights the innovative outcomes resulting from
OI. An exploratory embedded case study investigates how Sony Mobile use and
contribute to Jenkins and Gerrit; the two central OSS tools in their continuous
integration tool chain. Quantitative analysis was performed on change log data
from source code repositories in order to identify the top contributors and
triangulated with the results from five semi-structured interviews to explore
the nature of the commits. The findings of the case study include five major
themes: i) The process of opening up towards the tool communities correlates in
time with a general adoption of OSS in the organization. ii) Assets not seen as
competitive advantage nor a source of revenue are made open to OSS communities,
and gradually, the organization turns more open. iii) The requirements
engineering process towards the community is informal and based on engagement.
iv) The need for systematic and automated testing is still in its infancy, but
the needs are identified. v) The innovation outcomes included free features and
maintenance, and were believed to increase speed and quality in development.
Adopting OI was a result of a paradigm shift of moving from Windows to Linux
Peer Participation and Software
An examination of Mozilla's unique approach to software development considers how this model of participation might be applied to political and civic engagement. Firefox, a free Web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation, is used by an estimated 270 million people worldwide. To maintain and improve the Firefox browser, Mozilla depends not only on its team of professional programmers and managers but also on a network of volunteer technologists and enthusiastsâfree/libre and open source software (FLOSS) developersâwho contribute their expertise. This kind of peer production is unique, not only for its vast scale but also for its combination of structured, hierarchical management with open, collaborative volunteer participation. In this MacArthur Foundation Report, David Booth examines the Mozilla Foundation's success at organizing large-scale participation in the development of its software and considers whether Mozilla's approach can be transferred to government and civil society. Booth finds parallels between Mozilla's collaboration with Firefox users and the Obama administration's philosophy of participatory governance (which itself amplifies the much older Jeffersonian ideal of democratic participation). Mozilla's success at engendering part-time, volunteer participation that produces real marketplace innovation suggests strategies for organizing civic participation in communities and government. Mozilla's model could not only show us how to encourage the technical community to participate in civic life but also teach us something about how to create successful political democracy
FLOSS in New Zealand Public Libraries
This study attempts to gain an understanding of the uses and potential uses of FLOSS (free/libre and open source software) in New Zealand public libraries; including how FLOSS is currently being used by New Zealand public libraries, problems encountered with FLOSS, benefits received from using FLOSS, and how libraries came to the decision to use FLOSS.
It uses an instrumental case study approach and interviews eight participants from four institutions; Te Horowhenua Trust, Auckland Libraries, Aotearoa People's Network Kaharoa and South Taranaki LibraryPlus.
The research found that participants were very happy with their FLOSS usage, and that it was important for governing bodies and IT departments to be supportive of experimentation and innovation. Benefits of FLOSS included lack of vendor lock-in, lower cost, flexibility, ability to influence the development of the software, the philosophies and ethos of FLOSS, better features, stability, community support and the ability to give patrons software to use outside the library.
Information sharing between libraries and engagement with FLOSS communities were important factors in successful use. Further research could study how software procurement decisions are made in New Zealand libraries, and whether FLOSS is being overlooked due to preconceptions or uneven decision-making processes
Understanding Sustainable Growth in Online Communities of Open-Source Software : Case: Open Core Business
Online communities are crucial for the survival and success of companies using the open core model, as they rely on attracting developers to use their open-source software (OSS) and con-verting some of those free users into paying customers. Current research focuses on the success factors of OSS projects, motivations to contribute, and the sustained participation from the community perspective. This thesis provides the companyâs point of view and adds the concept of sustainability to the growth of online communities, which makes this topic very relevant. The main objective of thesis is to uncover the characteristics of successful communities that propitiate sustainable growth, and what are the main challenges that stand in the way by finding answers to following questions, in the context of OSS.
a) What is the nature and relevance of online communities of OSS?
b) What are the main factors that drive sustainable growth in online communities of OSS?
c) What are the barriers for sustainable growth in online communities of OSS?
To achieve this understanding, the literature review widely covers the phenomenon of open-source software communities from what they are to why are they relevant, and how can the success of these online communities be measured. Finally, the current research on sustain-able growth in online communities and its success factors and barriers are covered. To expand the current knowledge on the sustainable growth of OSS communities, a case study is con-ducted by interviewing six key members that work with the community in an open core company by using the standardized open-ended interview approach and a six-phased thematic analysis.
The findings of the study identify four areas to look after when planning for sustainable growth: memberâs activities, communication platforms, company involvement, and product & marketing. Among the success factors, support, engagement, and recognition are brought up as some of the key drivers. On the other hand, the data suggests the main challenges are found in the form of communication barriers, inadequate resources, brand misconceptions, social issues, and challenges in product development
Piensa globalmente, actĂșa localmente: mapeo de la cultura libre en un sistema mediĂĄtico hĂbrido
From the nineties, the Internet has been providing new political hybrid action forms. At the
same time, some communities make a disruptive use of technologies aiming to subvert
network power relationships at the current capitalized and centralized cyberspace.
Addressing a collaborative mapping, we identified 290 free culture communities in
Spain. Their characteristics suggest the relevance of offline spaces and local areas to
deliberate, propose and perform political participation towards a neutral, centralised
and free Internet.Desde los años noventa, el ciberespacio ha propuesto formas acciĂłn polĂtica hĂbrida.
Asimismo, algunos colectivos realizan un uso disruptivo de las tecnologĂas para subvertir las
relaciones de poder en la Red. Mediante un mapeo colaborativo, identificamos 290 grupos
relacionados con la cultura libre en España. Sus caracterĂsticas sugieren la relevancia de los
espacios offline y de los territorios locales para deliberar y activarse polĂticamente a favor
de un Internet libre
Digital Democracy: Episode IVâA New Hope*: How a Corporation for Public Software Could Transform Digital Engagement for Government and Civil Society
Although successive generations of digital technology have become increasingly powerful in the past 20 years, digital democracy has yet to realize its potential for deliberative transformation. The undemocratic exploitation of massive social media systems continued this trend, but it only worsened an existing problem of modern democracies, which were already struggling to develop deliberative infrastructure independent of digital technologies. There have been many creative conceptions of civic tech, but implementation has lagged behind innovation. This article argues for implementing one such vision of digital democracy through the establishment of a public corporation. Modeled on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the United States, this entity would foster the creation of new digital technology by providing a stable source of funding to nonprofit technologists, interest groups, civic organizations, government, researchers, private companies, and the public. Funded entities would produce and maintain software infrastructure for public benefit. The concluding sections identify what circumstances might create and sustain such an entity
Developing an h-index for OSS developers
The public data available in Open Source Software (OSS) repositories has been used for many practical reasons: detecting community structures; identifying key roles among developers; understanding software quality; predicting the arousal of bugs in large OSS systems, and so on; but also to formulate and validate new metrics and proof-of-concepts on general, non-OSS specific, software engineering aspects. One of the results that has not emerged yet from the analysis of OSS repositories is how to help the âcareer advancementâ of developers: given the available data on products and processes used in OSS development, it should be possible to produce measurements to identify and describe a developer, that could be used externally as a measure of recognition and experience. This paper builds on top of the h-index, used in academic contexts, and which is used to determine the recognition of a researcher among her peers. By creating similar indices for OSS (or any) developers, this work could help defining a baseline for measuring and comparing the contributions of OSS developers in an objective, open and reproducible way
The cathedral and the bazaar of e-repository development: encouraging community engagement with moving pictures and sound
This paper offers an insight into the development, use and governance of eârepositories for learning and teaching, illustrated by Eric Raymond's bazaar and cathedral analogies and by a comparison of collection strategies that focus on content coverage or on the needs of users. It addresses in particular the processes that encourage and achieve community engagement. This insight is illustrated by one particular eârepository, the Education Media OnâLine (EMOL) service. This paper draws analogies between the bazaar approach for open source software development and its possibilities for developing eârepositories for learning and teaching. It suggests in particular that the development, use and evaluation of online moving pictures and sound objects for learning and teaching can benefit greatly from the community engagement lessons provided by the development, use and evaluation of open source software. Such lessons can be underpinned by experience in the area of learning resource collections, where repositories have been classified as âcollectionsâbasedâ or âuserâbasedâ. Lessons from the open source movement may inform the development of eârepositories such as EMOL in the future
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