Assessing the Health of an Open Source Ecosystem

This study examines the concept of an ecosystem as originated in the field of ecology and applied to open source software projects. Additionally, a framework for assessing the three dimensions of ecosystem health is defined and explained using examples from a specific open source ecosystem. The conceptual framework is explained in the context of a case study for a sponsored open source ecosystem. The framework and case study highlight a number of characteristics and aspects of these ecosystems which can be evaluated by existing and potential members to gauge the health and sustainability of open source projects and the products and services they produce.

The Chase for OSS Quality

This chapter explains why software users have good reasons to trust in the quality of OSS, even if they might have internalised the rule “If something has no price, it also has no value!” We present the idea that a system of incentives of both private programmers with their different motives to participate and companies paying their programmers for contributing to OSS, are responsible for the software quality—even if all programmers do not pursue a common purpose. The chapter delivers a conceptual framework from an economic perspective showing that every stakeholder can provide valuable input to the success of an open source project. Crowding out between contributors with different motivations does not necessarily exist even if companies with monetary intentions participate. Therefore, we assume OSS as an attractive forum for different interests that can seminally intertwine, while quality software is generated nearly as a by-product.

Evidence-Based Assurance to Support Process Quality in the F/OSS Community

This chapter investigates the quality issues of the free and open source software (F/OSS) development processes. It argues that software developed within the F/OSS paradigm has witnessed substantial growth rates within the software developers’ community. However, end users from outside the community are still sceptical about adopting F/OSS because of the perceived lack of quality assurance mechanisms within the F/OSS development process. The authors aim to promote higher adoption of F/OSS artefacts outside the developers’ community by exploring possibilities to provide appropriate evidence based assurances that F/OSS artefacts will meet the quality levels expected by users.

Perceptions of F/OSS Community

The role of online communities is a key element in free and open source software (F/OSS) and a primary factor in the success of the F/OSS development model. F/OSS communities are inter-networked groups of people who are united by a common interest in F/OSS software. This chapter addresses holistic issues pertaining to member participation in F/OSS communities, specifically considering their reasons and motivation for participating. It collates the relevant literature on F/OSS community participation and presents the results of an empirical study into members’ perceptions of their own participation. We identify primary reasons for participation such as problem solving, support provision, and social interaction and rank their importance by the participants’ preferences. We then separate development and support activities and compare the community members’ perceptions of the two. Finally, we draw conclusions and discuss the potential for future research in this area.

Volunteers in Large Libre Software Projects

Most libre (free, open source) software projects rely on the work of volunteers. Therefore, attracting people who contribute their time and technical skills is of paramount importance, both in technical and economic terms. This reliance on volunteers leads to some fundamental management challenges: Volunteer contributions are inherently difficult to predict, plan, and manage, especially in the case of large projects. In this chapter we present an analysis of the evolution over time of the human resources in large libre software projects, using the Debian project, one of the largest and most complex libre software projects based mainly in voluntary work, as a case study. We have performed a quantitative investigation of data corresponding to roughly seven years, studying how volunteer involvement has affected the software released by the project, and the developer community itself.

The Rise and Fall of an Open Source Project

The majority of open source projects fail. This chapter presents one such project as a case study, written from the perspective of the sole developer. It charts the various stages of development, from initial motivation and enthusiasm through the later stages of apathy and decline. It deals with many of the problems encountered by a sole developer, and the various approaches undertaken to maintain development momentum. This chapter provides anecdotal evidence as opposed to statistical analysis, giving an individual’s perspective on the development life cycle of an open source project, illustrating real world barriers to development and the typical issues that can stall a project.

Ecology and Dynamics of Open Source Communities

The goal of this chapter is to document the evolution of a portfolio of open source communities. These are communities formed around a set of related projects with common governance, which often produce artifacts shared among all projects. It helps to think of a portfolio of project communities as an ecology, in which the projects are mutually dependent, and there is both cross-project collaboration and competition for resources among the communities. As a case study, we explore the ecology of communities within the Apache project, one of the largest and most visible open source projects. We infer the community structure from developer mailing lists, and study how the communities evolve and interact over time. The analysis lends support to the often-stated hypothesis that open source communities grow by a process of preferential attachment. However, we show that the influx of external developers is not the only factor affecting community growth. The structure and dynamics of a community is also impacted by inter-project information flow, and the migration of developers between projects (including the formation of spin-offs).

Measuring the Efficiency of Free and Open Source Software Projects Using Data Envelopment Analysis

In this chapter, we propose for the first time a method to compare the efficiency of free and open source projects, based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. DEA offers several advantages in this context, as it is a non-parametric optimization method without any need for the user to define any relations between different factors or a production function, can account for economies or diseconomies of scale, and is able to deal with multi-input, multi-output systems in which the factors have different scales. Using a data set of 43 large F/OS projects retrieved from SourceForge.net, we demonstrate the application of DEA, and show that DEA indeed is usable for comparing the efficiency of projects. We will also show additional analyses based on the results, exploring whether the inequality in work distribution within the projects, the licensing scheme or the intended audience have an effect on their efficiency. As this is a first attempt at using this method for F/OS projects, several future research directions are possible. These include additional work on determining input and output factors, comparisons within application areas, and comparison to commercial or mixed-mode development projects.

Toward a GNU/Linux Distribution for Corporate Environments

The introduction of a GNU/Linux-based desktop system in a large company is often problematic. In literature, several crucial issues represent such a burden, which is often cost effective for SMEs and public administrations. Some of these are technical issues; the others are related to the training costs for the employees. Mainly, the technical obstacles are represented by different hardware configurations that might require several adhoc activities to adapt a standard GNU/Linux distribution to the specific environment, including the applications profile of the company. On the other hand, to lower the learning curve of employers, we decided to work toward adopting some GNU/Linux live distributions features. In this way, we added to our project specific functionalities, which provide new and interesting capabilities to our community of users, such as self-configuration and better usability, without losing compatibility with original distributions, which is too costly in a professional scenario for its greater maintenance cost. DSS1 (debased scripts set) tries to address the issues we mentioned above. It is a next-generation hybrid (both live and regular) distribution that includes an unmodified Debian-based GNU/Linux release and a modular-designed file system with some extended features, which we will describe in this chapter. We will also discuss the interactions with other open source communities and the positive mutual influence on DSS development process.

Understanding the Development of Free E-Commerce/E-Business Software

This study examines the development of open source software supporting e-commerce (EC) or e-business (EB) capabilities. This entails a case study within a virtual organization engaged in an organizational initiative to develop, deploy, and support free/open source software systems for EC or EB services, like those supporting enterprise resource planning. The objective of this study is to identify and characterize the resource-based software product development capabilities that lie at the center of the initiative, rather than the software itself, or the effectiveness of its operation in a business enterprise. By learning what these resources are, and how they are arrayed into product development capabilities, we can provide the knowledge needed to understand what resources are required to realize the potential of free EC and EB software applications. In addition, the resource-based view draws attention to those resources and capabilities that provide potential competitive advantages and disadvantages to the organization in focus.