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Carrots and Rainbows: Motivation and Social Practice in Open Source Software Development
Open source software (OSS) is a social and economic phenomenon that raises fundamental questions about the motivations of contributors to information systems development. Some developers are unpaid volunteers who seek to solve their own technical problems, while others create OSS as part of their employment contract. For the past 10 years, a substantial amount of academic work has theorized about and empirically examined developer motivations. We review this work and suggest considering motivation in terms of the values of the social practice in which developers participate. Based on the social philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre, we construct a theoretical framework that expands our assumptions about individual motivation to include the idea of a long-term, value-informed quest beyond short-term rewards. This motivation-practice framework depicts how the social practice and its supporting institutions mediate between individual motivation and outcome. The framework contains three theoretical conjectures that seek to explain how collectively elaborated standards of excellence prompt developers to produce high-quality software, change institutions, and sustain OSS development. From the framework, we derive six concrete propositions and suggest a new research agenda on motivation in OSS
Gravitational solution to the Pioneer 10/11 anomaly
A fully relativistic modified gravitational theory including a fifth force
skew symmetric field is fitted to the Pioneer 10/11 anomalous acceleration. The
theory allows for a variation with distance scales of the gravitational
constant G, the fifth force skew symmetric field coupling strength omega and
the mass of the skew symmetric field mu=1/lambda. A fit to the available
anomalous acceleration data for the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft is obtained for a
phenomenological representation of the "running" constants and values of the
associated parameters are shown to exist that are consistent with fifth force
experimental bounds. The fit to the acceleration data is consistent with all
current satellite, laser ranging and observations for the inner planets.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. typo's were corrected at Equations (4)
and (12) and a third table including our predictions for the anomalous
perihelion advance of the planets was adde
The Generic, Incommensurate Transition in the two-dimensional Boson Hubbard Model
The generic transition in the boson Hubbard model, occurring at an
incommensurate chemical potential, is studied in the link-current
representation using the recently developed directed geometrical worm
algorithm. We find clear evidence for a multi-peak structure in the energy
distribution for finite lattices, usually indicative of a first order phase
transition. However, this multi-peak structure is shown to disappear in the
thermodynamic limit revealing that the true phase transition is second order.
These findings cast doubts over the conclusion drawn in a number of previous
works considering the relevance of disorder at this transition.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Mean Field Theory of the Localization Transition
A mean field theory of the localization transition for bosonic systems is
developed. Localization is shown to be sensitive to the distribution of the
random site energies. It occurs in the presence of a triangular distribution,
but not a uniform one. The inverse participation ratio, the single site Green's
function, the superfluid order parameter and the corresponding susceptibility
are calculated, and the appropriate exponents determined. All of these
quantities indicate the presence of a new phase, which can be identified as the
{\it Bose-glass}.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, 2 figures appende
Longitudinal Current Dissipation in Bose-glass Superconductors
A scaling theory of vortex motion in Bose glass superconductors with currents
parallel to the common direction of the magnetic field and columnar defects is
presented. Above the Bose-glass transition the longitudinal DC resistivity
vanishes much faster than the
corresponding transverse resistivity , thus {\it reversing} the usual anisotropy of electrical transport in
the normal state of layered superconductors. In the presence of a current at an angle with the common field and columnar defect axis, the
electric field angle approaches as .
Scaling also predicts the behavior of penetration depths for the AC currents as
, and implies a {\it jump discontinuity} at in
the superfluid density describing transport parallel to the columns.Comment: 5 pages, revte
Preliminary design study of a baseline MIUS
Results of a conceptual design study to establish a baseline design for a modular integrated utility system (MIUS) are presented. The system concept developed a basis for evaluating possible projects to demonstrate an MIUS. For the baseline study, climate conditions for the Washington, D.C., area were used. The baseline design is for a high density apartment complex of 496 dwelling units with a planned full occupancy of approximately 1200 residents. Environmental considerations and regulations for the MIUS installation are discussed. Detailed cost data for the baseline MIUS are given together with those for design and operating variations under climate conditions typified by Las Vegas, Nevada, Houston, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, results of an investigation of size variation effects, for 300 and 1000 unit apartment complexes, are presented. Only conceptual aspects of the design are discussed. Results regarding energy savings and costs are intended only as trend information and for use in relative comparisons. Alternate heating, ventilation, and air conditioning concepts are considered in the appendix
Vortex Flow and Transverse Flux Screening at the Bose Glass Transition
We investigate the vortex phase diagram in untwinned YBaCuO single crystals
with columnar defects. These randomly distributed defects, produced by heavy
ion irradiation, are expected to induce a ``Bose Glass'' phase of localized
vortices characterized by a vanishing resistance and a Meissner effect for
magnetic fields transverse to the defect axis. We directly observe the
transverse Meissner effect using an array of Hall probe magnetometers. As
predicted, the Meissner state breaks down at temperatures Ts that decrease
linearly with increasing transverse magnetic field. However, Ts falls well
below the conventional melting temperature Tm determined by a vanishing
resistivity, suggesting an intermediate regime where flux lines are effectively
localized even when rotated off the columnar defects.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Critical temperature and the transition from quantum to classical order parameter fluctuations in the three-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet
We present results of extensive quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the
three-dimensional (3D) S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Finite-size scaling of
the spin stiffness and the sublattice magnetization gives the critical
temperature Tc/J = 0.946 +/- 0.001. The critical behavior is consistent with
the classical 3D Heisenberg universality class, as expected. We discuss the
general nature of the transition from quantum mechanical to classical (thermal)
order parameter fluctuations at a continuous Tc > 0 phase transition.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 4 PostScript figures include
Non-Universality in Random Matrix Ensembles with Soft Level Confinement
Two families of strongly non-Gaussian random matrix ensembles (RME) are
considered. They are statistically equivalent to a one-dimensional plasma of
particles interacting logarithmically and confined by the potential that has
the long-range behavior (),
or . The direct Monte Carlo simulations on
the effective plasma model shows that the spacing distribution function (SDF)
in such RME can deviate from that of the classical Gaussian ensembles. For
power-law potentials, this deviation is seen only near the origin , while for the double-logarithmic potential the SDF shows the cross-over
from the Wigner-Dyson to Poisson behavior in the bulk of the spectrum.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, 3 postscript figures appended, ICTP/9/94/ckw.
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