Thematic Coherence and Quotation Practices in OSS Design-Oriented Online Discussions

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1099237&coll=Portal&dl=GUIDE&CFID=62246420&CFTOKEN=99105023This paper presents an analysis of online discussions in Open Source Software (OSS) design. The objective of our work is to understand and model the dynamics of OSS design that take place in mailing list exchanges. We show how quotation practices can be used to locate design relevant data in discussion archives. OSS developers use quotation as a mechanism to maintain the discursive context. To retrace thematic coherence in the online discussions of a major OSS project, Python, we follow how messages are linked through quotation practices. We compare our quotation-based analysis with a more conventional analysis: a thread-based of the reply-to links between messages. The advantages of a quotation-based analysis over a thread-based analysis are outlined. Our analysis reveals also the links between the social structure and elements in the discussion space and how it shapes influence in the design process

A Methodological Framework for Socio-Cognitive Analyses of Collaborative Design of Open Source Software

Open Source Software (OSS) development challenges traditional software engineering practices. In particular, OSS projects are managed by a large number of volunteers, working freely on the tasks they choose to undertake. OSS projects also rarely rely on explicit system-level design, or on project plans or schedules. Moreover, OSS developers work in arbitrary locations and collaborate almost exclusively over the Internet, using simple tools such as email and software code tracking databases (e.g. CVS). All the characteristics above make OSS development akin to weaving a tapestry of heterogeneous components. The OSS design process relies on various types of actors: people with prescribed roles, but also elements coming from a variety of information spaces (such as email and software code). The objective of our research is to understand the specific hybrid weaving accomplished by the actors of this distributed, collective design process. This, in turn, challenges traditional methodologies used to understand distributed software engineering: OSS development is simply too "fibrous" to lend itself well to analysis under a single methodological lens. In this paper, we describe the methodological framework we articulated to analyze collaborative design in the Open Source world. Our framework focuses on the links between the heterogeneous components of a project's hybrid network. We combine ethnography, text mining, and socio-technical network analysis and visualization to understand OSS development in its totality. This way, we are able to simultaneously consider the social, technical, and cognitive aspects of OSS development. We describe our methodology in detail, and discuss its implications for future research on distributed collective practices

A study of online discussions in an Open-Source Software Community: Reconstructing thematic coherence and argumentation from quotation practices

http://www.springer.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,,1-40393-22-46608953-detailsPage%253Dppmmedia%257Ctoc%257Ctoc,00.htmlThis paper presents an analysis of online discussions in Open Source Software (OSS) design. The objective of our work is twofold. First, our research aims to understand and model the dynamics of OSS design that take place in mailing list exchanges. Second, our more long term objective is to develop tools to assist OSS developers to extract and reconstruct design relevant information from previous discussions. We show how quotation practices can be used to locate design relevant data in discussion archives. OSS developers use quotation as a mechanism to maintain the discursive context. To retrace thematic coherence in the online discussions of a major OSS project, Python, we follow how messages are linked through quotation practices. We compare our quotation-based analysis with a more conventional, thread-based analysis of the (reply-to) links between messages. The advantages of a quotation-based analysis over a thread-based analysis are outlined. Our approach provides a means to analyze argumentation and design rationales and promises a novel means to discover design relevant information in the archives of online discussions. Our analysis reveals also the links between the social structure and elements in the discussion space and how it shapes influence in the design process

Une approche multidimensionnelle de la participation dans les communautés de développement de logiciels libres

National audienceNotre étude vise à analyser les formes de participation dans les communautés de développement de logiciels libres. Nous proposons une approche méthodologique multidimensionnelle de la participation dans ces communautés, en nous basant sur le concept de rôle. On considère le rôle en tant que phénomène émergeant de l'interaction. Ce concept est développé selon plusieurs dimensions : une dimension sociale, une dimension cognitive et une dimension interactive. Notre approche se base sur l'exploitation et l'analyse des interactions dans trois espaces d'activités (discussion, documentation, implémentation) ainsi que sur les interactions conjointes dans ces espaces d'activités

Cross-Participants : fostering design-use mediation in an Open Source Software community

International audienceMotivation - This research aims at investigating emerging roles and forms of participation fostering design-use mediation during the Open Source Software design process Research approach - We compare online interactions for a successful "pushed-by-users" design process with unsuccessful previous proposals. The methodology developed, articulate structural analyses of the discussions (organization of discussions, participation) to actions to the code and documentation made by participants to the project. We focus on the useroriented and the developer-oriented mailing-lists of the Python project. Findings/Design - We find that key-participants, the cross-participants, foster the design process and act as boundary spanners between the users and the developers' communities. Research limitations/Implications - These findings can be reinforced developing software to automate the structural analysis of discussions and actions to the code and documentation. Further analyses, supported by these tools, will be necessary to generalise our results. Originality/Value - The analysis of participation among the three interaction spaces of OSS design (discussion, documentation and implementation) is the main originality of this work compared to other OSS research that mainly analyse one or two spaces. Take away message - Beside the idealistic picture that users may intervene freely in the process, OSS design is boost and framed by some key-participants and specific rules and there can be barriers to users' participatio

Une approche multidimensionnelle de la participation dans les communautés de développement de logiciels libres

National audienceNotre étude vise à analyser les formes de participation dans les communautés de développement de logiciels libres. Nous proposons une approche méthodologique multidimensionnelle de la participation dans ces communautés, en nous basant sur le concept de rôle. On considère le rôle en tant que phénomène émergeant de l'interaction. Ce concept est développé selon plusieurs dimensions : une dimension sociale, une dimension cognitive et une dimension interactive. Notre approche se base sur l'exploitation et l'analyse des interactions dans trois espaces d'activités (discussion, documentation, implémentation) ainsi que sur les interactions conjointes dans ces espaces d'activités

Participation à la conception et qualité du produit dans les communautés en ligne épistémiques : nouvelles directions de recherche en ergonomie des activités de conception

Cet article porte sur les communautés en ligne à finalité de production de connaissances, ou communautés épistémiques, telles que les communautés de conception de logiciels open source et les communautés Wikipedia. L’objectif de cet article est d’identifier et de développer plusieurs questions de recherche que ces nouvelles formes de collectifs posent à l’ergonomie. Après un positionnement théorique sur ces collectifs vus comme des collectifs de conception, nous développerons trois lignes de questionnement centrées sur le processus et le produit de la conception. Une première direction de questionnement porte sur les formes de participation dans ces communautés abordées sous l’angle de l’analyse de l’activité. Une deuxième direction concerne les mécanismes de soutien socio-techniques à la participation et notamment au maintien d’une conscience de la situation et d’une conscience sociale. Enfin nous traiterons plus particulièrement de la question de la qualité du produit de la conception. Chaque thème est abordé en dressant un état de l’art et en indiquant des pistes de recherche, certaines pluridisciplinaires.This paper focuses on the study of online epistemic communities, whose aim is to construct knowledge objects, such as open source software (OSS) and encyclopaediæ (Wikipedia). We aim to examine and expand on several issues that these communities raise for design ergonomics research. Our theoretical position is that these epistemic communities can be studied as new kinds of design collectives. Three lines of research are outlined concerning design processes and products. The first pertains to the various forms of participation in these communities, using work analyses. The second addresses the socio-technical mechanisms that support participation, in particular situation and social awareness support. Finally, the question of product quality is discussed. With respect to each research approach, a critical review of the literature and a research agenda for multidisciplinary research are put forward

Governance in online communities of artistic cultural production

Thesis (D.B.A.)--Boston UniversityWhile scholars have brought much insight into the governance of online communities engaged in the production of goods with relatively established quality criteria, such as open source software, they paid less attention to the governance of online communities of artistic cultural production. In artistic cultural production, due to its drive for novelty and potential resistance to institutionalized norms, it is difficult to create agreements and shared routines among participants -particularly during initial emergence when participants are new to one another and new to their form of contributions. In this two-essay dissertation, I study arguably the largest online community of artistic production in Turkey, Sour Dictionary, and analyze the governance configurations during its initial emergence and ongoing growth. The first essay describes how coherence was achieved during the birth and early years of the Dictionary through the use of ambiguity in the two governance dimensions of vision and rules of production. I show that in this period, ambiguity was maintained in these dimensions not only to provide participants with the flexibility they needed for artistic expressions, but also to bring clarity to the recognition of participants' allegiances. The presence of a shared opposition among participants appears key to achieving coherence in an artistic community, and for such a community, ambiguity is an adaptive resource rather than something to eliminate as is often argued within an economic logic. The second essay follows a natural experiment where the founder's changing decisions on two other governance dimensions of quality assurance and member recruitment, along with his utilizations of IT for growth, resulted in different outcomes of coherence and popularity during the community's ongoing growth. As the founder switched the combination of his use of IT and member recruitment method from one that invited slow and incremental growth to one that brought sudden and massive growth, the community faced a variety of problems in both outcomes. I show that these problems arose as the founder responded to growth by implementing quality assurance methods that emphasized efficiency rather than flexibility, and thus failed to

Conception de logiciels libres : enjeux pour l'ergonomie et rôle des utilisateurs dans le processus de conception

International audienceNous proposons un état des lieux des questions que pose la conception des logiciels libres à l'ergonomie. Nous illustrons ce propos à partir d'une recherche sur la participation des utilisateurs au processus de conception de logiciels libres. Nous analysons les interactions, les activités de conception et de partage de connaissances, dans les deux principales listes de discussions de la communauté Python. Nous caractérisons, ainsi, un processus de conception « poussée par les utilisateurs » dans lequel des participants clé, jouent le rôle de médiateurs, en articulant conception et usage. Nous proposons de considérer la conception de logiciels libres comme une forme de conception soutenue par l'émergence de rôles, exprimés spécifiquement en fonction du contexte de la conception, plus qu'une forme de conception basée sur la participation ouverte des utilisateurs

Conception de logiciels libres : enjeux pour l'ergonomie et rôle des utilisateurs dans le processus de conception

International audienceNous proposons un état des lieux des questions que pose la conception des logiciels libres à l'ergonomie. Nous illustrons ce propos à partir d'une recherche sur la participation des utilisateurs au processus de conception de logiciels libres. Nous analysons les interactions, les activités de conception et de partage de connaissances, dans les deux principales listes de discussions de la communauté Python. Nous caractérisons, ainsi, un processus de conception « poussée par les utilisateurs » dans lequel des participants clé, jouent le rôle de médiateurs, en articulant conception et usage. Nous proposons de considérer la conception de logiciels libres comme une forme de conception soutenue par l'émergence de rôles, exprimés spécifiquement en fonction du contexte de la conception, plus qu'une forme de conception basée sur la participation ouverte des utilisateurs