From Internal to External: An Integrated Theoretical Framework for Open Innovation

The traditional resource-based view (RBV) accentuates the heterogeneous and imperfect mobile resources serve as key determinants of the competitiveness of organizations. However, social capital theory seems to be advocated leveraging the resources residing in the relationships among individuals to facilitate the organizational performances. The open innovation product, i.e., an Open Source Software (OSS) project, consists of a group of self-organizing individuals who collaboratively co-create an innovation. Much of our understandings of OSS an open innovation is based on studies that focused on the internal resources (i.e., on the co-workers predominantly) leaving little regards to the fact that such an open innovation organization functions in a larger community of projects and people. In this regard, it is imperative to jointly build upon the RBV and social capital theory to take a broader, embracing investigation of an open innovation, i.e. open source software (OSS), system to unveil how internal and external resources can facilitate the innovation legitimacy. In particular, the internal resources include the tangible resources, such as workforce and extent of contribution, and intangible resource like governance structure. The external resources include diverse forms of social capital, such as structural, cognitive, and relational social capital. This ongoing work proposed a theoretical framework to articulate how the interplay between internal and external resources can promote the innovation legitimacy in the OSS context

Assessing open source communities' health using Service Oriented Computing concepts

© 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The quality of Open Source Software products is directly related to its community's health. To date, health analysis is made accessing available data repositories or using software management tools that are often too static or ad hoc. To address this issue, we propose to adopt principles and methods from the Service Oriented Computing field. Particularly, we propose to adapt the concepts of quality service and service level agreement, and propose to reuse the existing body of knowledge and techniques from SOC monitoring. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, we use a service monitoring framework called SALMonOSS as a proof of concept to realize the implementation of the proposal.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Open source software ecosystems : a systematic mapping

Context: Open source software (OSS) and software ecosystems (SECOs) are two consolidated research areas in software engineering. OSS influences the way organizations develop, acquire, use and commercialize software. SECOs have emerged as a paradigm to understand dynamics and heterogeneity in collaborative software development. For this reason, SECOs appear as a valid instrument to analyze OSS systems. However, there are few studies that blend both topics together. Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current state of the art in OSS ecosystems (OSSECOs) research, specifically: (a) what the most relevant definitions related to OSSECOs are; (b) what the particularities of this type of SECO are; and (c) how the knowledge about OSSECO is represented. Method: We conducted a systematic mapping following recommended practices. We applied automatic and manual searches on different sources and used a rigorous method to elicit the keywords from the research questions and selection criteria to retrieve the final papers. As a result, 82 papers were selected and evaluated. Threats to validity were identified and mitigated whenever possible. Results: The analysis allowed us to answer the research questions. Most notably, we did the following: (a) identified 64 terms related to the OSSECO and arranged them into a taxonomy; (b) built a genealogical tree to understand the genesis of the OSSECO term from related definitions; (c) analyzed the available definitions of SECO in the context of OSS; and (d) classified the existing modelling and analysis techniques of OSSECOs. Conclusion: As a summary of the systematic mapping, we conclude that existing research on several topics related to OSSECOs is still scarce (e.g., modelling and analysis techniques, quality models, standard definitions, etc.). This situation calls for further investigation efforts on how organizations and OSS communities actually understand OSSECOs.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Open source software ecosystems quality analysis from data sources

Background: Open source software (OSS) and software ecosystems (SECOs) are two consolidated research areas in software engineering. The adoption of OSS by firms, governments, researchers and practitioners has been increasing rapidly in the last decades, and in consequence, they find themselves in a new kind of ecosystem composed by software communities,foundations, developers and partners, namely Open Source Software Ecosystem (OSSECO). In order to perform a systematic quality evaluation of a SECO, it is necessary to define certain types of concrete elements. This means that measures and evaluations should be described (e.g., through thresholds or expert judgment). The quality evaluation of an OSSECO may serve several purposes, for example: adopters of the products of the OSSECO may want to know about the liveliness of the OSSECO (e.g., recent updates); software developers may want to know about the activeness (e.g., how many collaborators are involved and how active they are); and the OSSECO community itself to know about the OSSECO health (e.g., evolving in the right direction). However, the current approaches for evaluating software quality (even those specific for open source software) do not cover all the aspects relevant in an OSSECO from an ecosystem perspective. Goal: The main goal of this PhD thesis is to support the OSSECO quality evaluation by designing a framework that supports the quality evaluation of OSSECOs. Methods: To accomplish this goal, we have used and approach based on design science methodology by Wieringa [1] and the characterization of software engineering proposed by M. Shaw [2], in order to produce a set of artefacts to contribute in thequality evaluation of OSSECOs and to learn about the effects of using these artefacts in practice. Results: We have conducted a systematic mapping to characterize OSSECOs and designed the QuESo framework (a framework to evaluate the OSSECO quality) composed by three artifacts: (i) QuESo-model, a quality model for OSSECOs; (ii) QuESoprocess, a process for conducting OSSECO quality evaluations using the QuESo-model; and (iii) QuESo-tool, a software component to support semi-automatic quality evaluation of OSSECOs. Furthermore, this framework has been validated with a case study on Eclipse. Conclusions: This thesis has contributed to increase the knowledge and understanding of OSSECOs, and to support the qualityevaluation of OSSECOs. [ntecedentes: el software de código abierto (OSS, por sus siglas en inglés) y los ecosistemas de software (SECOs, por sus siglas en inglés) son dos áreas de investigación consolidadas en ingeniería de software. La adopción de OSS por parte de empresas, gobiernos, investigadores y profesionales se ha incrementado rápidamente en las últimas décadas, y, en consecuencia, todos ellos hacen parte de un nuevo tipo de ecosistema formado por comunidades de software, fundaciones, desarrolladores y socios denominado ecosistema de software de código abierto. (OSSECO, por sus siglas en inglés)). Para realizar una evaluación sistemática de la calidad de un SECO, es necesario definir ciertos tipos de elementos concretos. Esto significa que tanto las métricas como las evaluaciones deben ser descritos (por ejemplo, a través de datos históricos o el conocimiento de expertos). La evaluación de la calidad de un OSSECO puede ser de utilidad desde diferentes perspectivas, por ejemplo: los que adoptan los productos del OSSECO pueden querer conocer la vitalidad del OSSECO (por ejemplo, el número de actualizaciones recientes); los desarrolladores de software pueden querer saber sobre la actividad del OSSECO (por ejemplo, cuántos colaboradores están involucrados y qué tan activos son); incluso la propia comunidad del OSSECO para conocer el estado de salud del OSSECO (por ejemplo, si está evolucionando en la dirección correcta). Sin embargo, los enfoques actuales para evaluar la calidad del software (incluso aquellos específicos para el software de código abierto) no cubren todos los aspectos relevantes en un OSSECO desde una perspectiva ecosistémica. Objetivo: El objetivo principal de esta tesis doctoral es apoyar la evaluación de la calidad de OSSECO mediante el diseño de un marco de trabajo que ayude a la evaluación de la calidad de un OSSECO. Métodos: Para lograr este objetivo, hemos utilizado un enfoque basado en la metodología design science propuesta por Wieringa [1]. Adicionalmente, nos hemos basado en la caracterización de la ingeniería de software propuesta por M. Shaw [2], con el fin de construir un conjunto de artefactos que contribuyan en la evaluación de la calidad de un OSSECO y para conocer los efectos del uso de estos artefactos en la práctica. Resultados: Hemos realizado un mapeo sistemático para caracterizar los OSSECOs y hemos diseñado el marco de trabajo denominado QuESo (es un marco de trabajo para evaluar la calidad de los OSSECOs). QuESo a su vez está compuesto por tres artefactos: (i) QuESo-model, un modelo de calidad para OSSECOs; (ii) QuESo-process, un proceso para llevar a cabo las evaluaciones de calidad de OSSECOs utilizando el modelo QuESo; y (iii) QuESo-tool, un conjunto de componentes de software que apoyan la evaluación de calidad de los OSSECOs de manera semiautomática. QuESo ha sido validado con un estudio de caso sobre Eclipse. Conclusiones: esta tesis ha contribuido a aumentar el conocimiento y la comprensión de los OSSECOs, y tambien ha apoyado la evaluación de la calidad de los OSSECOsPostprint (published version

Open source software ecosystems quality analysis from data sources

Background: Open source software (OSS) and software ecosystems (SECOs) are two consolidated research areas in software engineering. The adoption of OSS by firms, governments, researchers and practitioners has been increasing rapidly in the last decades, and in consequence, they find themselves in a new kind of ecosystem composed by software communities,foundations, developers and partners, namely Open Source Software Ecosystem (OSSECO). In order to perform a systematic quality evaluation of a SECO, it is necessary to define certain types of concrete elements. This means that measures and evaluations should be described (e.g., through thresholds or expert judgment). The quality evaluation of an OSSECO may serve several purposes, for example: adopters of the products of the OSSECO may want to know about the liveliness of the OSSECO (e.g., recent updates); software developers may want to know about the activeness (e.g., how many collaborators are involved and how active they are); and the OSSECO community itself to know about the OSSECO health (e.g., evolving in the right direction). However, the current approaches for evaluating software quality (even those specific for open source software) do not cover all the aspects relevant in an OSSECO from an ecosystem perspective. Goal: The main goal of this PhD thesis is to support the OSSECO quality evaluation by designing a framework that supports the quality evaluation of OSSECOs. Methods: To accomplish this goal, we have used and approach based on design science methodology by Wieringa [1] and the characterization of software engineering proposed by M. Shaw [2], in order to produce a set of artefacts to contribute in thequality evaluation of OSSECOs and to learn about the effects of using these artefacts in practice. Results: We have conducted a systematic mapping to characterize OSSECOs and designed the QuESo framework (a framework to evaluate the OSSECO quality) composed by three artifacts: (i) QuESo-model, a quality model for OSSECOs; (ii) QuESoprocess, a process for conducting OSSECO quality evaluations using the QuESo-model; and (iii) QuESo-tool, a software component to support semi-automatic quality evaluation of OSSECOs. Furthermore, this framework has been validated with a case study on Eclipse. Conclusions: This thesis has contributed to increase the knowledge and understanding of OSSECOs, and to support the qualityevaluation of OSSECOs. [ntecedentes: el software de código abierto (OSS, por sus siglas en inglés) y los ecosistemas de software (SECOs, por sus siglas en inglés) son dos áreas de investigación consolidadas en ingeniería de software. La adopción de OSS por parte de empresas, gobiernos, investigadores y profesionales se ha incrementado rápidamente en las últimas décadas, y, en consecuencia, todos ellos hacen parte de un nuevo tipo de ecosistema formado por comunidades de software, fundaciones, desarrolladores y socios denominado ecosistema de software de código abierto. (OSSECO, por sus siglas en inglés)). Para realizar una evaluación sistemática de la calidad de un SECO, es necesario definir ciertos tipos de elementos concretos. Esto significa que tanto las métricas como las evaluaciones deben ser descritos (por ejemplo, a través de datos históricos o el conocimiento de expertos). La evaluación de la calidad de un OSSECO puede ser de utilidad desde diferentes perspectivas, por ejemplo: los que adoptan los productos del OSSECO pueden querer conocer la vitalidad del OSSECO (por ejemplo, el número de actualizaciones recientes); los desarrolladores de software pueden querer saber sobre la actividad del OSSECO (por ejemplo, cuántos colaboradores están involucrados y qué tan activos son); incluso la propia comunidad del OSSECO para conocer el estado de salud del OSSECO (por ejemplo, si está evolucionando en la dirección correcta). Sin embargo, los enfoques actuales para evaluar la calidad del software (incluso aquellos específicos para el software de código abierto) no cubren todos los aspectos relevantes en un OSSECO desde una perspectiva ecosistémica. Objetivo: El objetivo principal de esta tesis doctoral es apoyar la evaluación de la calidad de OSSECO mediante el diseño de un marco de trabajo que ayude a la evaluación de la calidad de un OSSECO. Métodos: Para lograr este objetivo, hemos utilizado un enfoque basado en la metodología design science propuesta por Wieringa [1]. Adicionalmente, nos hemos basado en la caracterización de la ingeniería de software propuesta por M. Shaw [2], con el fin de construir un conjunto de artefactos que contribuyan en la evaluación de la calidad de un OSSECO y para conocer los efectos del uso de estos artefactos en la práctica. Resultados: Hemos realizado un mapeo sistemático para caracterizar los OSSECOs y hemos diseñado el marco de trabajo denominado QuESo (es un marco de trabajo para evaluar la calidad de los OSSECOs). QuESo a su vez está compuesto por tres artefactos: (i) QuESo-model, un modelo de calidad para OSSECOs; (ii) QuESo-process, un proceso para llevar a cabo las evaluaciones de calidad de OSSECOs utilizando el modelo QuESo; y (iii) QuESo-tool, un conjunto de componentes de software que apoyan la evaluación de calidad de los OSSECOs de manera semiautomática. QuESo ha sido validado con un estudio de caso sobre Eclipse. Conclusiones: esta tesis ha contribuido a aumentar el conocimiento y la comprensión de los OSSECOs, y tambien ha apoyado la evaluación de la calidad de los OSSECO

Protocol for a SLR on software ecosystems: technical report

Open Source Software (OSS) and Ecosystems (SECO) are two emergent research areas in software engineering. We are interested on the published works that join these two topics, to do it we used a well-known technique called Systematic Literature Review (SLR).Preprin

Algorithmic Sovereignty

This thesis describes a practice based research journey across various projects dealing with the design of algorithms, to highlight the governance implications in design choices made on them. The research provides answers and documents methodologies to address the urgent need for more awareness of decisions made by algorithms about the social and economical context in which we live. Algorithms consitute a foundational basis across different fields of studies: policy making, governance, art and technology. The ability to understand what is inscribed in such algorithms, what are the consequences of their execution and what is the agency left for the living world is crucial. Yet there is a lack of interdisciplinary and practice based literature, while specialised treatises are too narrow to relate to the broader context in which algorithms are enacted. This thesis advances the awareness of algorithms and related aspects of sovereignty through a series of projects documented as participatory action research. One of the projects described, Devuan, leads to the realisation of a new, worldwide renown operating system. Another project, "sup", consists of a minimalist approach to mission critical software and literate programming to enhance security and reliability of applications. Another project, D-CENT, consisted in a 3 year long path of cutting edge research funded by the EU commission on the emerging dynamics of participatory democracy connected to the technologies adopted by citizen organizations. My original contribution to knowledge lies within the function that the research underpinning these projects has on the ability to gain a better understanding of sociopolitical aspects connected to the design and management of algorithms. It suggests that we can improve the design and regulation of future public, private and common spaces which are increasingly governed by algorithms by understanding not only economical and legal implications, but also the connections between design choices and the sociopolitical context for their development and execution.Gruppo Cabass

Avoimen lähdekoodin arvoverkkojen rakenteet ja toiminnot

The objective of this thesis is to discover the structure and operations of value networks that are formed in the open source software field. To achieve this objective, the following research questions were used: 1) What kind of open source value networks exist? And how do they differ from each other? 2) What kinds of roles are there in open source networks and what kind of relationships are there between different participants? 3) How do companies operate in open source value networks? The questions emphasize company viewpoint to open source value networks, as in this thesis the network analysis is carried out from the company perspective, not so much of community perspective. In theoretical part of the study, the concept of open source value network is examined, focusing on the literature about value creation in industrial networks and the open source environment. The main outcome of the theoretical part is the general model of creating and capturing value in open source network. This model is then used in the empirical part of the study to form the value networks of the case communities which are Eclipse and Debian. The research data for analyzing the case communities is gathered from different sources; the primary data includes a series of qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey. Based on the analysis of the theme interviews, the roles of the companies are identified and included in the networks. Finally, the comparative analysis of the value networks summarizes the empirical part. Together with the developers of the communities the companies and the customers form an open source value network. The differences, for example, in values, norms and working methods affect the relationships between the participants and value creation in the networks. Together the participants set the requirements for the value they create together in a professional open source value network. Therefore, Eclipse can be considered to be mainly business-oriented whereas Debian is more of a hobby to the developers. The value network of Eclipse exemplifies the general open source value network model described in the theory section more precisely than the value network of Debian. Companies that have functional and active relationships to open source communities have great possibilities to benefit from open source. Still, the contribution to the networks does not depend on the company’s size. The best ways to cooperate with communities, and therefore to create value with the communities, are through partnerships, by employing developers to the groups of core developers, and by interacting through the company’s own community.Tämän työn tavoitteena on selvittää avoimen lähdekoodin ympärille muodostuneiden arvoverkostojen rakenteita ja toimintoja. Tavoite voidaan nähdä kaksijakoisena; ensinnäkin pitää selvittää, mitä ovat arvoverkostot, jonka jälkeen voidaan tutkia arvoverkostoja avoimen lähdekoodin näkökulmasta. Tavoitteen saavuttamiseksi haettiin vastauksia seuraaviin tutkimuskysymyksiin: 1) Minkälaisia avoimen lähdekoodin arvoverkostoja on olemassa ja miten ne eroavat toisistaan? 2) Minkälaisia rooleja avoimen lähdekoodin verkostot pitävät sisällään ja minkälaisia suhteita verkostojen eri osapuolet muodostavat? 3) Miten yritykset operoivat avoimen lähdekoodin arvoverkostoissa? Tutkimuskysymykset muodostettiin yrityslähtöisesti, sillä työssä tutkimusilmiötä analysoitiin yritysten näkökulmasta, ei niinkään avoimen lähdekoodin yhteisöjen näkökulmasta. Työ rajattiin käsittelemään kahta erilaista avoimen lähdekoodin ympärille muodostunutta yhteisöä. Kyseiset yhteisöt ovat Eclipse ja Debian, jotka ovat tutkimuskohteina myös tämän diplomityön toimeksiantajana toimineessa Tekesrahoitteisessa OSSI-tutkimusprojektissa. Yhteisöt valittiin perustuen niiden erilaisiin lähtökohtiin; Debianin toiminta perustuu enemmänkin vapaaehtoisuuteen, Eclipse puolestaan toimii yritysmäisemmin ollessaan monelle kehittäjälle päätulonlähde. Lähdemateriaali yhteisöjen analysointia varten hankittiin monesta eri lähteestä. Pääsääntöisesti lähdemateriaali pitää sisällään sarjan kvalitatiivisia haastatteluja sekä kvantitatiivisen tutkimuksen. Haastateltavina toimi avainhenkilöitä eri yhteisöistä, joita on haastateltu yhteistyössä muiden OSSI-tutkijoiden kanssa. Vastaavasti kvantitatiivinen tutkimus, joka toteutettiin projektin tutkijoiden toimesta vuoden 2006 aikana, pitää sisällään Eclipse ja Debian -yhteisöjen kehittäjien näkemyksiä. Yhteisöjen verkostorakenteita analysoimalla oli tarkoitus selvittää, millaisia arvoverkostoja avoimen lähdekoodin ympärille on muodostunut. Näissä verkostoissa isossa roolissa ovat erilaiset yritykset, joiden linkittymistä avoimen lähdekoodin arvoverkkoihin tässä työssä myös tutkittiin. Tätä varten tutkimukseen valittiin viisi erityyppistä yritystä, joista jokaisesta haastateltiin yhtä keskeistä henkilöä. Teemahaastatteluiden avulla toteutettiin yritysanalyysit, joiden perusteella oli tarkoitus selvittää yhtäläisyyksiä teoriassa mainittuihin eri yritysrooleihin, jonka jälkeen yritysroolit voitiin yhdistää tutkittaviin avoimen lähdekoodin arvoverkkoihin. /Kir0