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

Reusing processes and documenting processes: toward an integrated framework

This paper presents a cognitive typology of reuse processes, and a cognitive typology of documenting processes. Empirical studies on design with reuse and on software documenting provide evidence for a generalized cognitive model. First, these studies emphasize the cyclical nature of design: cycles of planning, writing and revising occur. Second, natural language documentation follows the hierarchy of cognitive entities manipulated during design. Similarly software reuse involves exploiting various types of knowledge depending on the phase of design in which reuse is involved. We suggest that these observations can be explained based on cognitive models of text processing: the van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) model of text comprehension, and the Hayes and Flower (1980) model of text production. Based on our generalized cognitive model, we suggest a framework for documenting reusable components

Quality of collaboration in a distant collaborative architectural educational setting

peer reviewedThis paper analyses the quality of collaboration of two student teams in a longitudinal study of a collaborative distant architectural studio. Based on a simple method to assess several dimensions of this quality of collaboration, we compared the two groups at three stages of the design process. We also analysed how the quality of collaboration evolved over time and as a function of the design stage. We finally discuss the interests of the method and some insights to support a better understanding of mechanisms of collaboration

Online epistemic communities: theoretical and methodological directions for understanding knowledge co-elaboration in new digital spaces

This paper presents, illustrates and discusses a generic framework for studying knowledge co-elaboration in online epistemic communities (“OECs”). Our approach is characterised by: considering knowledge co-elaboration as a design activity; distinguishing discussion and production spaces in OECs; characterising participation via the notion of role; fine-grained analyses of meaning, content and communicative functions in interactions. On this basis, three key issues for ergonomics research on OECs are discussed and illustrated by results from our previous studies on OSS and Wikipedia. One issue concerns the interrelation between design (task) and regulation. Whereas design task-oriented activity is distributed among participants, we illustrate that OCEs function with specialised emerging roles of group regulation. However, the task-oriented activity also functions at an interpersonal level, as an interplay of knowledge-based discussion with negotiation of competencies. Another issue concerns the foci of activity on the (designed) knowledge object. Based on a generic task model, we illustrate asymmetry and distinctiveness in tasks’ foci of participants. The last issue concerns how design-use mediation is ensured by specific forms of mediation roles in OECs. Finally we discuss the degree of generality of our framework and draw some perspectives for extending our framework to other OECs