Crafting a Systematic Literature Review on Open-Source Platforms

This working paper unveils the crafting of a systematic literature review on open-source platforms. The high-competitive mobile devices market, where several players such as Apple, Google, Nokia and Microsoft run a platforms- war with constant shifts in their technological strategies, is gaining increasing attention from scholars. It matters, then, to review previous literature on past platforms-wars, such as the ones from the PC and game-console industries, and assess its implications to the current mobile devices platforms-war. The paper starts by justifying the purpose and rationale behind this literature review on open-source platforms. The concepts of open-source software and computer-based platforms were then discussed both individually and in unison, in order to clarify the core-concept of 'open-source platform' that guides this literature review. The detailed design of the employed methodological strategy is then presented as the central part of this paper. The paper concludes with preliminary findings organizing previous literature on open-source platforms for the purpose of guiding future research in this area.Comment: As presented in 10th IFIP WG 2.13 International Conference on Open Source Systems, OSS 2014, San Jos\'e, Costa Rica, May 6-9, 201

Add-on Solution Success: A Configurational View on Knowledge Sharing in Digital Platforms

Digital platforms serve as a foundation upon which manifold firms develop complementary add-ons to address heterogeneous customer needs. In order to successfully stimulate partner contributions platform vendors need to share knowledge with partners that enables them to develop add-ons. Vendors face a trade-off between addressing idiosyncratic needs of partners while ensuring the scalability of knowledge sharing. Literature indicates that standardized or idiosyncratic knowledge sharing does not per se result in successful outcomes, but rather depends on how knowledge sharing addresses characteristics of the platform’s architecture. In order to increase our understanding of this trade-off we derive a typology of platform architecture and knowledge sharing. We conduct an empirical study at a large enterprise platform vendor to uncover configurations of knowledge sharing approaches. We distill successful knowledge sharing approaches following a set-theoretic approach. Our research in progress offers insights into our preliminary results and gives an outlook on our future research

Platform Openness: A Systematic Literature Review and Avenues for Future Research

Open platforms such as Facebook or Android have stimulated innovation and competition across industries. Information systems literature has analyzed platforms from a variety of perspectives. The aim of this paper is to synthesize and integrate extant interdisciplinary research on the concept of platform openness. Towards this end, we conducted a literature review and analyzed the results with deductive and inductive coding approaches. We identified five distinct themes: measurement frameworks, implementation mechanisms, drivers for opening and closing platforms, trade-offs in designing openness, and the impact of changing openness on ecosystems. We propose three avenues for future research: finding the optimal degree of platform openness, integrating perspectives on accessibility and transparency, and analyzing the influence of openness and other factors with configurational theories. This paper contributes to research on platforms by laying out the main themes and perspectives in the research stream of platform openness and by identifying areas for future research

Information Technology Platforms: Definition and Research Directions

The concept of an information technology (IT) related platform is broad and covers phenomena ranging from the operating system Linux to the Internet. Such platforms are of increasing importance to innovation and value creation across many facets of industry and daily life. There is, however, a lack of common understanding in both research and industry about what is mean by the term platform when related to IT. This lack of consensus is detrimental to research and knowledge development. Thus, the aims of this study are to: (i) provide a sound definition of the IT-platform concept by identifying its distinguishing dimensions; and (ii) identify important current research directions for the IT-platform concept. To achieve these aims a systematic literature review was undertaken with 133 relevant articles taken from major information systems journals, conferences, and business publications. The study contributes by providing a sound base for future research into IT-platforms.Comment: Research-in-progress ISBN# 978-0-646-95337-3 Presented at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2015 (arXiv:1605.01032

Openness Indicators for the Evaluation of Digital Platforms between the Launch and Maturity Phase

In recent years, the evaluation of digital platforms has become an important focus in the field of information systems science. The identification of influential indicators that drive changes in digital platforms, specifically those related to openness, is still an unresolved issue. This paper addresses the challenge of identifying measurable indicators and characterizing the transition from launch to maturity in digital platforms. It proposes a systematic analytical approach to identify relevant openness indicators for evaluation purposes. The main contributions of this study are the following (1) the development of a comprehensive procedure for analyzing indicators, (2) the categorization of indicators as evaluation metrics within a multidimensional grid-box model, (3) the selection and evaluation of relevant indicators, (4) the identification and assessment of digital platform architectures during the launch-to-maturity transition, and (5) the evaluation of the applicability of the conceptualization and design process for digital platform evaluation

Coopetition in an open-source way : lessons from mobile and cloud computing infrastructures

An increasing amount of technology is no longer developed in-house. Instead, we are in a new age where technology is developed by a networked community of individuals and organizations, who base their relations to each other on mutual interest. Advances arising from research in platforms, ecosystems, and infrastructures can provide valuable knowledge for better understanding and explaining technology development among a network of firms. More surprisingly, recent research suggests that technology can be jointly developed by rival competing firms in an open-source way. For instance, it is known that the mobile device makers Apple and Samsung continued collaborating in open-source projects while running expensive patent wars in the courts. On top of multidisciplinary theory in open-source software, cooperation among competitors (aka coopetition) and digital infrastructures, I (and my coauthors) explored how rival firms cooperate in the joint development of open-source infrastructures. While assimilating a wide variety of paradigms and analytical approaches, this doctoral research combined the qualitative analysis of naturally occurring data (QA) with the mining of software repositories (MSR) and social network analysis (SNA) within a set of case studies. By turning to the mobile and cloud computing industries in general, and the WebKit and OpenStack opensource infrastructures in particular, we found out that qualitative ethnographic materials, combined with social network visualizations, provide a rich medium that enables a better understanding of competitive and cooperative issues that are simultaneously present and interconnected in open-source infrastructures. Our research contributes back to managerial literature in coopetition strategy, but more importantly to Information Systems by addressing both cooperation and competition within the development of high-networked open-source infrastructures.Yhä suurempaa osaa teknologiasta ei enää kehitetä organisaatioiden omasta toimesta. Sen sijaan, olemme uudella aikakaudella jossa teknologiaa kehitetään verkostoituneessa yksilöiden ja organisaatioiden yhteisössä, missä toimitaan perustuen yhteiseen tavoitteeseen. Alustojen, ekosysteemien ja infrastruktuurien tutkimuksen tulokset voivat tuottaa arvokasta tietämystä teknologian kehittämisestä yritysten verkostossa. Erityisesti tuore tutkimustieto osoittaa että kilpailevat yritykset voivat yhdessä kehittää teknologiaa avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuvilla käytännöillä. Esimerkiksi tiedetään että mobiililaitteiden valmistajat Apple ja Samsung tekivät yhteistyötä avoimen lähdekoodin projekteissa ja kävivät samaan aikaan kalliita patenttitaistoja eri oikeusfoorumeissa. Perustuen monitieteiseen teoriaan avoimen lähdekoodin ohjelmistoista, yhteistyöstä kilpailijoiden kesken (coopetition) sekä digitaalisista infrastruktuureista, minä (ja kanssakirjoittajani) tutkimme miten kilpailevat yritykset tekevät yhteistyötä avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuurien kehityksessä. Sulauttaessaan runsaan joukon paradigmoja ja analyyttisiä lähestymistapoja case-joukon puitteissa, tämä väitöskirjatutkimus yhdisti luonnollisesti esiintyvän datan kvantitatiivisen analyysin ohjelmapakettivarastojen louhintaan ja sosiaalisten verkostojen analyysiin. Tutkiessamme mobiili- ja pilvipalveluiden teollisuudenaloja yleisesti, ja WebKit ja OpenStack avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuureja erityisesti, havaitsimme että kvalitatiiviset etnografiset materiaalit yhdistettyinä sosiaalisten verkostojen visualisointiin tuottavat rikkaan aineiston joka mahdollistaa avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuuriin samanaikaisesti liittyvien kilpailullisten ja yhteistyökuvioiden hyvän ymmärtämisen. Tutkimuksemme antaa oman panoksensa johdon kirjallisuuteen coopetition strategy -alueella, mutta sitäkin enemmän tietojärjestelmätieteeseen, läpikäymällä sekä yhteistyötä että kilpailua tiiviisti verkostoituneessa avoimen lähdekoodin infrastruktuurien kehitystoiminnassaUma crescente quantidade de tecnologia não é desenvolvida internamente por uma só organização. Em vez disso, estamos em uma nova era em que a tecnologia é desenvolvida por uma comunidade de indivíduos e organizações que baseiam suas relações umas com as outras numa rede de interesse mútuo. Os avanços teórico decorrentes da pesquisa em plataformas computacionais, ecossistemas e infraestruturas digitais fornecem conhecimentos valiosos para uma melhor compreensão e explicação do desenvolvimento tecnológico por uma rede de multiplas empresas. Mais surpreendentemente, pesquisas recentes sugerem que tecnologia pode ser desenvolvida conjuntamente por empresas rivais concorrentes e de uma forma aberta (em código aberto). Por exemplo, sabe-se que os fabricantes de dispositivos móveis Apple e Samsung continuam a colaborar em projetos de código aberto ao mesmo tempo que se confrontam em caras guerras de patentes nos tribunais. Baseados no conhecimento científico de software de código aberto, de cooperação entre concorrentes (também conhecida como coopetição) e de infraestruturas digitais, eu e os meus co-autores exploramos como empresas concorrentes cooperam no desenvolvimento conjunto de infraestruturas de código aberto. Ao utilizar uma variedade de paradigmas e abordagens analíticas, esta pesquisa de doutoramento combinou a análise qualitativa de dados de ocorrência natural (QA) com a análise de repositórios de softwares (MSR) e a análise de redes sociais (SNA) dentro de um conjunto de estudos de casos. Ao investigar as industrias de technologias móveis e de computação em nuvem em geral, e as infraestruturas em código aberto WebKit e OpenStack, em particular, descobrimos que o material etnográfico qualitativo, combinado com visualizações de redes sociais, fornece um meio rico que permite uma melhor compreensão das problemas competitivos e cooperativos que estão simultaneamente presentes e interligados em infraestruturas de código aberto. A nossa pesquisa contribui para a literatura em gestão estratégica e coompetição, mas mais importante para literatura em Sistemas de Informação, abordando a cooperação e concorrência no desenvolvimento de infraestruturas de código aberto por uma rede the indivíduos e organizações em interesse mútuo

Mobile Application Development Platform Adoption: A Grounded Theory Investigation

Prior research on information technology (IT) adoption has examined adoption of individual technologies with little attention to the adoption of IT platforms. IT platforms are general purpose technologies that are used by application developers to build specific applications for individual or organizational needs. IT platform adoption is different from the adoption of independent IT, in that (1) platform adoption requires substantial up-front knowledge investments, (2) the potential benefits from such adoption depend on network externalities, and (3) adopters are developers rather than end-users, To understand what factors drive IT platform adoption, we interviewed 35 developers of mobile applications, and analyzed their responses using a grounded theoretic approach. Our findings suggests that a wide range of factors drive IT platform adoption, including platform characteristics, network externalities, personal motivation, personal knowledge and innovativeness, and social influence

Will SDN be part of 5G?

For many, this is no longer a valid question and the case is considered settled with SDN/NFV (Software Defined Networking/Network Function Virtualization) providing the inevitable innovation enablers solving many outstanding management issues regarding 5G. However, given the monumental task of softwarization of radio access network (RAN) while 5G is just around the corner and some companies have started unveiling their 5G equipment already, the concern is very realistic that we may only see some point solutions involving SDN technology instead of a fully SDN-enabled RAN. This survey paper identifies all important obstacles in the way and looks at the state of the art of the relevant solutions. This survey is different from the previous surveys on SDN-based RAN as it focuses on the salient problems and discusses solutions proposed within and outside SDN literature. Our main focus is on fronthaul, backward compatibility, supposedly disruptive nature of SDN deployment, business cases and monetization of SDN related upgrades, latency of general purpose processors (GPP), and additional security vulnerabilities, softwarization brings along to the RAN. We have also provided a summary of the architectural developments in SDN-based RAN landscape as not all work can be covered under the focused issues. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on the state of the art of SDN-based RAN and clearly points out the gaps in the technology.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure

Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results