Informal Control in Open Source Project: An Empirical Assessment

Control of open source projects is problematic because of the very nature and ideology of the open source paradigm. In contrast to commercial software projects, there are no formal control mechanisms in place and participation is generally voluntary in open source projects. However, despite this apparent lack of control of the project, open source software development has become a viable and cost effective way of developing high quality software. This paper reports on a quantitative study which tested the impact of informal control on the effectiveness of the core group of software developers in open source projects. The findings indicate that clan control and self control impact positively on the various dimensions of the group effectiveness of the core group of software developers in open source projects

Cultivating teachers\u27 knowledge and skills for leading change in schools

Australian policy initiatives and state curriculum reform efforts affirm a commitment to address student disengagement through the development of inclusive school environments, curriculum, and pedagogy. This paper, drawing on critical social theory, describes three Australian projects that support the cultivation of teachers&rsquo; beliefs, knowledge and skills for critical reflection and leading change in schools. The first project reports on the valued ethics that emerged in pre-service teacher reflections about a Service-learning Program at a university in Queensland. The second project reports on a school-based collaborative inquiry approach to professional development with a focus on literacy practices. The final project reports on an initiative in another university in Victoria, to operationalise pedagogical change and curriculum renewal in Victoria, through the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT). These case studies illustrate how critical reflection and development of beliefs, knowledge and skills can be acquired to better meet the needs of schools.<br /

Knowledge Location, Differentiation, Credibility and Coordination in Open Source Software Development Teams

A number of high-quality, large-scale, complex software systems, such as Linux, Apache, and Perl, have been successfully produced through the open source software (OSS) paradigm. This fact suggests that effective knowledge coordination must exist within some OSS teams. However, very few studies have attempted to explicate what these coordination mechanisms are. Therefore, this study examines how knowledge is coordinated between the members of an OSS team from the transactive memory system (TMS) perspective. Specifically, we investigate 1) the relation between TMS and the team members’ knowledge coordination behaviors, and 2) the relation between knowledge coordination and the team’s performance. By surveying 61 OSS project teams, the study validates the important role that TMS plays in OSS developers’ knowledge coordination behaviors, which, in turn, have positive influence on their projects’ technical achievement

Virtual Team Collaboration: A Review of Literature and Perspectives

Along with the widespread use of information technologies (IT) and the increasing geographical span of tasks held by various organizations, Virtual Teams (VTs) rose as an alternative organizational form which has the potential to deeply change the workplace. This article provides a review of previously published work on collaboration in VTs. The review is organized around two perspectives adopted by scholars, namely technological and managerial. This analysis underlines two major constructs that leads to an efficient VT collaboration, i.e. the context in which the collaboration is held and the collaboration style. While the former is illustrated by knowledge and team characteristics, the latter is identified by technological media and leadership. Building on this classification, we suggest a model and explore future research directions with a particular attention to the implications for collaboration in organizations.Collaboration, Virtual Team, Knowledge Sharing, Literature Review

The Hackathon Phenomenon

date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +000

Digital Innovation: The Hackathon Phenomenon

date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, CreativeWorks London Hub, grant AH/J005142/1, and the European Regional Development Fund, London Creative and Digital Fusion

An Exploratory Study of Ideology and Trust in Open Source Development Groups

Open source (OS) software development has been the subject of heightened interest among organizational scholars because of the novel social coordination practices that signal a departure from traditional proprietary software development. We propose that trust among group members in open source development groups (OSDGs) plays a key role in facilitating their success. Trust is important in this context because of the risk of opportunistic behavior by other members who volunteers may not have met and may never expect to meet, as well as a lack of explicit market contracts or common organizational affiliation. The open source community is differentiated by a coherent ideology that emphasizes a distinct set of interrelated norms, beliefs, and values. These serve to create incentives for open source practices that eschew conventional transactional norms in favor of a gift culture and a focus on reputations. In this study, we primarily examine the role of the shared ideology in enabling the development of affective and cognitive trust in OSDGs. We further examine how this trust leads to desired outcomes ñ group efficacy and effectiveness. The study is based on exploratory interviews, examination of archival records and a preliminary survey to understand the specific conditions of open source efforts on which this work-in-progress report is based. This is being followed-up by empirical testing of our research model through a survey of a broad variety of OSDGs. This study would contribute to a clarification of the role of trust in enabling software groups to work effectively and help to understand the bases of trust in ideology-permeated groups

A Research Agenda for Studying Open Source I: A Multi-Level Framework

This paper presents a research agenda for studying information systems using open source software A multi-level research model is developed at five discrete levels of analysis: (1) the artifact; (2) the individual; (3) the team, project, and community; (4) the organization; and (5) society. Each level is discussed in terms of key issues within the level. Examples are based on prior research. In a companion paper, [Niederman, et al 2006], we view the agenda through the lens of referent discipline theories