Study and analysis of open source software projects mailing lists as a tool for knowledge sharing

Este trabajo explora el papel desempeñado por las listas de distribución en proyectos de software de código abierto como herramienta para compartir conocimiento y resolver problemas. Uno de los principales beneficios que las empresas pueden obtener del uso de software de código abierto es la colaboración informal en desarrollo de aplicaciones. La herramienta más importante para esa colaboración y coordinación son las listas de correo, seguido por los foros de discusión asíncronos, informes de bugs y chat. Uno de los argumentos principales a la hora de decidirse por una distribución de Linux embebido es el soporte proporcionado a los desarrolladores. Pero generalmente, es difícil tomar una decisión a priori sin conocer si el soporte proporcionado será lo suficientemente bueno durante todo el futuro desarrollo del proyecto. Para ayudar en esta tarea, este trabajo se centra en analizar el comportamiento y la actividad de las listas de correo para extraer una serie de parámetros que puedan aportar información sobre la calidad y la evolución de la lista. Esta información resultaría relevante para analizar y decidir sobre la mejor distribución de Linux embebido a utilizarThis research explores the role of mailing lists in open source software projects as a tool for knowledge sharing and problem resolution. One of the benefits that firms can derive from using Open Source Software (OSS) is informal development collaboration. The primary tool for collaboration and coordination are group mailing lists, followed by asynchronous discussion forums, bug reports, and chat. One of the main arguments when deciding about an embedded Linux distribution is the support provided to developers. However, it is usually difficult to decide a priori if the provided support will be good enough for the future development of the project. Particularly, the behaviour and activity of mailing list are analyzed to extract a set of parameters that could inform about the quality and the evolution of the list. This information could be useful to decide the best embedded distribution to be implemente

Modelling mailing list behaviour in open source projects: the case of ARM embedded Linux

One of the benefits firms can derive from using Open Source Software (OSS) is informal development collaboration, and the primary tool for collaboration and coordination are group mailing lists. The purpose of the paper is modelling mailing lists behaviour in OSS projects, using a set of descriptors that could inform about their quality and their evolution. As a case study, a mailing list focused on ARM embedded Linux has been selected. Messages posted to this list from 2001 to 2006 have been extracted, and factor analysis has been applied to obtain the underlying patterns of behaviours. Theory about communities of practice has been used to understand the meaning of the extracted patterns. Their time distribution is finally described. The paper provides new insights into the behaviour of mailing list as a source of support for OSS projects and highlights the importance of an involved core of individuals inside the communityMinisterio de Educación y Ciencia DPI2007-60128Junta de Andalucía. Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa P07-TIC-0262

Licensing and Business Models

License affects software companies’ business activities. While proprietary software vendors create custom licenses, open source companies have less flexibility. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) defines a list of 72 licenses as open source (“OSI approved”). For a project to follow open source licensing, it has to pick licenses from this set. Logically, we expect that an open source company defines its business model around the license that it selects. Thus, we can assume that business model decisions follow license choice. In our research we find that in some cases open source companies remove these license constraints for business reasons. We observed cases of open source companies moving from one OSI-approved license to another or companies innovating by adding additional terms. In all these cases, the decision of change is based on the license being a poor fit with their business goals. Not all open source companies are entitled to change the license because this option is available only to companies that own intellectual property. If they do not, they can try to reshape their business model, but that remains a suboptimal option. Whether cognizant of it or not, organizations are implicitly choosing a business model when they select a license. Therefore, it is very important to address licensing and business model decisions as one system instead of a disjointed two-step process. For this purpose we introduce (1) an evolutionary model where license selection and business model impact each other and (2) a taxonomy that addresses both licensing and business models. Our approach helps practitioners include revenue considerations in the licensing choice and researchers to more accurately study the antecedents and consequences of license choice.

Open Source Innovation, Patent Injunctions, and the Public Interest

This Article explores the difficulties that high technology markets pose for patent law and, in particular, for patent injunctions. It then outlines the ways in which “open source innovation” is unusually vulnerable to patent injunctions. It argues that courts can recognize this vulnerability, and respond to the particular competitive and innovative benefits of open source innovation, by flexibly applying the Supreme Court’s ruling in eBay v. MercExchange. Having dealt with the lamentable failure of the International Trade Commission to exercise a similar flexibility in its own patent jurisprudence, despite statutory and constitutional provisions that counsel otherwise, the Article concludes with some recommendations for reform

Determinants of OSS revenue model choices

The open source software movement is traditionally not affiliated to profit-oriented business behaviour. However, commercial activity has become increasingly common, and, business models have institutionalized in the field of open source software. The aim of this research paper is to explore the determinants of profitable revenue models for businesses based on open source software. Therefore, the study focuses on analysing different revenue options of open source software businesses as a part of more comprehensive open source software (OSS) business models. We explore other business model elements as the potential determinants of firm-level revenue model choices. This study draws on a qualitative research approach on the issue through two analytical business cases – MySQL and Red Hat – both of which illustrate the complexity and heterogeneity of solutions and options in the field of OSS. Thus, we analyse the business models of the selected case companies and identify the underlying endogenous elements, i.e. offerings, resources and relationships within them. Finally, we discuss the managerial implications derived from the cases to describe how these business model elements affect the development of successful revenue models in the field of open source software

Archetypes of open-source business models

The open-source paradigm offers a plethora of opportunities for innovative business models (BMs) as the underlying codebase of the technology is accessible and extendable by external developers. However, finding the proper configuration of open-source business models (OSBMs) is challenging, as existing literature gives guidance through commonly used BMs but does not describe underlying design elements. The present study generates a taxonomy following an iterative development process based on established guidelines by analyzing 120 OSBMs to complement the taxonomy's conceptually-grounded design elements. Then, a cluster-based approach is used to develop archetypes derived from dominant features. The results show that OSBMs can be classified into seven archetypical patterns: open-source platform BM, funding-based BM, infrastructure BM, Open Innovation BM, Open Core BM, proprietary-like BM, and traditional open-source software (OSS) BM. The results can act as a starting point for further investigation regarding the use of the open-source paradigm in the era of digital entrepreneurship. Practitioners can find guidance in designing OSBMs

Antitrust Overreach: Undoing Cooperative Standardization in the Digital Economy

Information technology markets in general and wireless communications markets, in particular, rely on standardization mechanisms to develop interoperable devices for data processing, storage, and transmission. From 2G through the emergent 5G standard, wireless communications markets have largely achieved standardization through cooperative multi-firm arrangements that likely outperform the historically dominant alternatives of government monopoly, which is subject to informational deficits and regulatory capture, and private monopoly, which suffers from pricing and other distortions inherent to protected market positions. This cooperative process has successfully relied on three key legal elements: reasonably secure patents, quasi-contractual licensing commitments supplemented by reputation effects, and targeted application of antitrust safeguards against collusion risk. Over approximately the past decade, antitrust agencies and courts in the U.S., Europe and Asia have taken actions that threaten this legal infrastructure by limiting patentees’ ability to seek injunctive relief, adopting rigid understandings of “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” licensing principles, and addressing collusion risk among licensors-innovators while overlooking (and even exacerbating) collusion risk among licensees-implementers. These judicial and regulatory interventions in IP licensing markets shift value from firms and economies that specialize in generating innovations to firms and economies that specialize in integrating innovations into end-user products. These entity-level and country-level redistributive effects are illustrated by lobbying activities in the wireless communications markets and antitrust actions against IP licensors in jurisdictions that have substantial net IP deficits and are principally populated by IP licensees. Current antitrust policy promotes producers’ narrow interests in lower input costs while ignoring the broader public interest in preserving the cooperative standardization structures that have supported innovation and commercialization in the digital economy