Social Structure for Open Source Software Projects

Open source software (OSS) has drawn increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers in recent years. However, few empirical studies have investigated the interaction process of OSS teams during OSS development. This dissertation has two primary objectives. First, the research studies the social structure of OSS teams. Second, the research investigates the factors impacting the social structure of OSS project teams (e.g., group size, group composition and group task) as well as the effects of social structure on OSS performance. Based on the theory of social structure, social network, and group-related theories, the dissertation discusses a general research framework and a planned two-phase study to achieve the research goals. The first phase of the research is to understand the social structure of OSS projects, especially the interaction pattern during the development process. Research hypotheses are proposed at the end of this stage. The second phase aims to test the hypotheses on the causes and effects of social structure on OSS development. Social network analysis, which focuses on investigating the relationships between a set of actors, will be employed as the primary research methodology for this study. Data will be collected from websites such as SourceForge that host OSS projects. By understanding the relationships between group characteristics, social network, and OSS performance, this research contributes to the enhancement of knowledge on OSS development from the social network perspective

Impacts of Social Network Structure on Knowledge Sharing in Open Source Software Development Teams

The study examines the relationship between social network structure and knowledge sharing in Open Source Software (OSS) development teams. One hundred and fifty projects were selected from SourceForge.net using stratified sampling. Social network structure was measured by two indices: degree of centralization and core/periphery fitness. Knowledge sharing was measured from two aspects: the quality of knowledge sharing that is indicated by the helpfulness of messages and the quantity of knowledge sharing that is indicated by the number of messages. The results show that social network structure significantly affects the quantity of knowledge sharing. However, social network structure does not influence the quality of knowledge sharing. In addition to the contribution to OSS literature, the results of this study also inform OSS practice

CONCEPTUALIZING THE COMMONS-BASED PEERPRODUCTION OF SOFTWARE: AN ACTIVITY THEORETIC ANALYSIS

Commons-based peer-production (CBPP), as exemplified by community-based open source software (OSS) development, has been posited by Yochai Benkler as an alternative to hierarchies and markets for organizing the production of information goods. This study seeks to conceptualize viable CBPP through an Activity Theoretic analysis of 524 peer-reviewed OSS research artifacts. The analysis reveals the reliance of peer-production communities on complex systems of interrelated tools, rules, and roles as mediating components enabling communities to (i) exploit the two theorized advantages of CBPP (resource allocation and information processing) and (ii) overcome the two theorized challenges associated with this mode of production (motivation and organization). The study clarifies and extends extant understanding of CBPP in several significant ways, and concludes that in order for CBPP to be viable, participants must operate in a sustainable fashion that both enhances the commons and leaves the community intact