Participation in community-based free/libre open source software development tasks: the impact of task characteristics

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kangning Wei ◽  
Kevin Crowston ◽  
U. Yeliz Eseryel

PurposeThis paper explores how task characteristics in terms of trigger type and task topic influence individual participation in community-based free/libre open source software (FLOSS) development by considering participation in individual tasks rather than entire projects.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative study was designed using choose tasks that were carried out via the email discourse on the developers' email fora in five FLOSS projects. Choice process episodes were selected as the unit of analysis and were coded for the task trigger and topic. The impact of these factors on participation (i.e. the numbers of participants and messages) was assessed by regression.FindingsThe results reveal differences in participation related to different task triggers and task topics. Further, the results suggest the mediating role of the number of participants in the relationships between task characteristics and the number of messages. The authors also speculate that project type serves as a boundary condition restricting the impacts of task characteristics on the number of participants and propose this relationship for future research.Research limitations/implicationsEmpirical support was provided to the important effects of different task characteristics on individual participation behaviors in FLOSS development tasks.Practical implicationsThe findings can help FLOSS participants understand participation patterns in different tasks and choose the types of tasks to attend to.Originality/valueThis research explores the impact of task characteristics on participation in FLOSS development at the task level, while prior research on participation in FLOSS development has focused mainly on factors at the individual and/or project levels.

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zilia Iskoujina ◽  
Joanne Roberts

Purpose – This paper aims to add to the understanding of knowledge sharing in online communities through an investigation of the relationship between individual participant’s motivations and management in open source software (OSS) communities. Drawing on a review of literature concerning knowledge sharing in organisations, the factors that motivate participants to share their knowledge in OSS communities, and the management of such communities, it is hypothesised that the quality of management influences the extent to which the motivations of members actually result in knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach – To test the hypothesis, quantitative data were collected through an online questionnaire survey of OSS web developers with the aim of gathering respondents’ opinions concerning knowledge sharing, motivations to share knowledge and satisfaction with the management of OSS projects. Factor analysis, descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to explore the survey data. Findings – The analysis of the data reveals that the individual participant’s satisfaction with the management of an OSS project is an important factor influencing the extent of their personal contribution to a community. Originality/value – Little attention has been devoted to understanding the impact of management in OSS communities. Focused on OSS developers specialising in web development, the findings of this paper offer an important original contribution to understanding the connections between individual members’ satisfaction with management and their motivations to contribute to an OSS project. The findings reveal that motivations to share knowledge in online communities are influenced by the quality of management. Consequently, the findings suggest that appropriate management can enhance knowledge sharing in OSS projects and online communities, and organisations more generally.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 1447-1467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Ki Lee ◽  
Soon-Ho Kim ◽  
Min-Seong Kim ◽  
Ho-Seok Kim

Purpose Seeking to build a deeper understanding of a higher level of hospitality in terms of employee task performance, this study aimed to explore different person–environment (P–E) fit types and the corresponding effects on hotel employees’ emotions and task performance, evaluated by both the employees themselves and their supervisors. Design/methodology/approach Frequency analysis, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling method. Findings The results indicated that person–organization fit was associated with emotions toward the organization, the team and the job. However, this study did not provide empirical support for hypotheses that person-team fit affected emotions. Person–job fit was also associated with positive emotions toward the organization and the job, unlike with the team. Organization emotion had positive effects on both task performances, whereas no effect was reported between team emotion and task performances. Practical implications The study suggests that hotels’ human resource administrators may want to focus on developing and strengthening P–E fit and emotional responses. Originality/value This research illustrates the impact of three types of P–E fit on self-rated and supervisor-rated performance and examines the significant mediating role of three types of emotion.


MIS Quarterly ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 951-976
Author(s):  
Likoebe M. Maruping ◽  
◽  
Sherae L. Daniel ◽  
Marcelo Cataldo ◽  
◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Erin Polka ◽  
Ellen Childs ◽  
Alexa Friedman ◽  
Kathryn S. Tomsho ◽  
Birgit Claus Henn ◽  
...  

Sharing individualized results with health study participants, a practice we and others refer to as “report-back,” ensures participant access to exposure and health information and may promote health equity. However, the practice of report-back and the content shared is often limited by the time-intensive process of personalizing reports. Software tools that automate creation of individualized reports have been built for specific studies, but are largely not open-source or broadly modifiable. We created an open-source and generalizable tool, called the Macro for the Compilation of Report-backs (MCR), to automate compilation of health study reports. We piloted MCR in two environmental exposure studies in Massachusetts, USA, and interviewed research team members (n = 7) about the impact of MCR on the report-back process. Researchers using MCR created more detailed reports than during manual report-back, including more individualized numerical, text, and graphical results. Using MCR, researchers saved time producing draft and final reports. Researchers also reported feeling more creative in the design process and more confident in report-back quality control. While MCR does not expedite the entire report-back process, we hope that this open-source tool reduces the barriers to personalizing health study reports, promotes more equitable access to individualized data, and advances self-determination among participants.


2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Buxton

PurposeTo review the variety of software solutions available for putting CDS/ISIS databases on the internet. To help anyone considering which route to take.Design/methodology/approachBriefly describes the characteristics, history, origin and availability of each package. Identifies the type of skills required to implement the package and the kind of application it is suited to. Covers CDS/ISIS Unix version, JavaISIS, IsisWWW, WWWISIS Versions 3 and 5, Genisis, IAH, WWW‐ISIS, and OpenIsis.FindingsThere is no obvious single “best” solution. Several are free but may require more investment in acquiring the skills to install and configure them. The choice will depend on the user's experience with CDS/ISIS formatting language, HTML, programming languages, operating systems, open source software, and so on.Originality/valueThere is detailed documentation available for most of these packages, but little previous guidance to help potential users to distinguish and choose between them.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khyati Shetty ◽  
Jason R. Fitzsimmons

PurposeThe purpose of this research study is to empirically investigate a hypothesized theoretical framework that captures the impact of brand personality congruence, brand love and brand attachment on brand loyalty in the luxury branding sector.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were gathered from 416 millennial shoppers with incomes from US$100,000 and above (High-Earners-Not–Rich-Yet). Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses of the framework developed for the study. Dubai is chosen as the context of the study based on the fact that the luxury brands sector is one of the leading industries in the country, and has a sizeable population of HENRY's.FindingsThe findings of this study revealed that brand personality congruence is a critical determinant of brand love and brand loyalty, suggesting congruence between the consumer's personality and the brand is essential to the luxury branding sector. The study also establishes a relationship between brand attachment and brand loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers new empirical support for the proposition that consumers' emotional aspects like brand personality congruence and brand love are critical for enhancing brand loyalty toward luxury. The findings from this study can provide brand managers with a guide to managing their branding strategies and understand the strategic role of these variables on communication strategies for a new emerging segment of the HENRY's customer segment.Originality/valueThis study contributes to luxury branding and a new segment of millennials by examining the relationship between brand personality congruence, brand love, brand attachment and its effect on brand loyalty in the luxury branding context.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Tennant ◽  
Tom Crick

When the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak began on January 31, 2020, no-one could have anticipated the impact that it would have on our scholarly communication and publishing systems. That is, perhaps, unless you work on open source software. Right now, global research communities are united to collaborate on solving the threat of the pandemic, sharing resources and knowledge more efficiently and effective than ever before, a process broadly described as ‘open scholarship’ (Dunleavy, 2020). This is essentially akin to how free and open source software (FOSS) communities have been operating now for decades (Willinsky, 2005). Recently, we participated in a “massively open online paper”, or MOOP, that explored the intersections between FOSS and open scholarship (Tennant, Agarwal, et al., 2020). Here, we want to summarise our key findings from that project, and place them in the context of the current outbreak. Critically, this pandemic shows us that many of the pervasive and systemic issues surrounding the evaluation, valuation, use and operationalisation of “openness” in scholarship can be extremely easily bypassed when the social demand and urgency is there, thus showing that the primary barriers towards open scholarship are inherently political and not technical.


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