scholarly journals Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition? The LATEX Case Study

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Gaudeul
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Network Externalities ◽  
Competitive Environment ◽  
Open Source Project ◽  
History Of

This paper traces the history of TEX, the open source typesetting program. TEX was an early and very successful open source project that imposed its standards in a particularly competitive environment and inspired many advances in the typesetting industry. Developed over three decades, TEX came into competition with a variety of open source and proprietary alternatives. I argue from this case study that open source developers derive direct and indirect network externalities from the use of their software by others and must therefore consider non-developers' needs to make their software more attractive to a broader audience and more competitive with proprietary alternatives.

Dependencies, Networks, and Priorities in an Open Source Project

2011 ◽  
pp. 116-125
Author(s):  
Juha Järvensivu
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Network Characteristics ◽  
Project Networks ◽  
Open Source Project ◽  
Project Network ◽  
Network Studies

Dependencies between modern software projects are common. Jointly, such dependencies form a project network, where changes in one project cause changes to the others belonging to the same project network. This chapter discusses the issues of dependencies, distances, and priorities in open source project networks, from the standpoint of both technological and social networks. Thus, a multidisciplinary approach to the phenomenon of open source software (OSS) development is offered. There is a strong empirical focus maintained, since the aim of the chapter is to analyze OSS network characteristics through an in-depth, qualitative case study of one specifi c open source community: the Open Source Eclipse plug-in project Laika. In our analysis, we will introduce both internal and external networks associated with Laika, together with a discussion of how tightly they are intertwined. We will analyze both the internal and the external networks through the elements of mutuality, interdependence, distance, priorities, different power relations, and investments made in the relationships—elements chosen on the basis of analysis of the network studies literature.

The Rise and Fall of an Open Source Project

2007 ◽  
pp. 259-276
Author(s):  
Graham Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Real World ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Open Source Project ◽  
Development Life Cycle

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.

The Development of the Open ACS Community

2011 ◽  
pp. 298-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neophytos Demetriou
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Parent Company ◽  
Technical Development ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Open Source Project ◽  
High Level

OpenACS is a high-level community framework designed for developing collaborative Internet sites. It started from a university project at MIT, got momentum from the ArsDigita Foundation, and split up into a commercial and an open source version. OpenACS has proven its durability and utility by surviving the death of its parent company (ArsDigita) to grow into a vibrant grassroots collection of independent consultants and small companies implementing diverse and complex Web solutions around the globe for NPOs, philanthropy, and profit. A heritage from this history is a still dominant position of contributors with commercial interests that, in its intensity, is above the norm found in open source projects. In this paper, OpenACS, with its community is presented as a case study documenting the forces between commercial interests, securing investments, and technical development in a large open source project with a large proportion of commercial involvement.

Software Reuse in Open Source A Case Study

2013 ◽  
pp. 151-176
Author(s):  
Andrea Capiluppi ◽  
Klaas-Jan Stol ◽  
Cornelia Boldyreff
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Software Reuse ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Application Domain ◽  
Similar System ◽  
Counter Example ◽  
History Of ◽  
Support Software

A promising way to support software reuse is based on Component-Based Software Development (CBSD). Open Source Software (OSS) products are increasingly available that can be freely used in product development. However, OSS communities still face several challenges before taking full advantage of the “reuse mechanism”: many OSS projects duplicate effort, for instance when many projects implement a similar system in the same application domain and in the same topic. One successful counter-example is the FFmpeg multimedia project; several of its components are widely and consistently reused in other OSS projects. Documented is the evolutionary history of the various libraries of components within the FFmpeg project, which presently are reused in more than 140 OSS projects. Most use them as black-box components; although a number of OSS projects keep a localized copy in their repositories, eventually modifying them as needed (white-box reuse). In both cases, the authors argue that FFmpeg is a successful project that provides an excellent exemplar of a reusable library of OSS components.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar (originally published in Volume 3, Number 3, March 1998)

First Monday ◽  
2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Raymond
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Project ◽  
Software Debugging ◽  
Commercial World ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selfish Agents

I anatomize a successful open-source project, fetchmail, that was run as a deliberate test of some surprising theories about software engineering suggested by the history of Linux. I discuss these theories in terms of two fundamentally different development styles, the "cathedral" model of most of the commercial world versus the "bazaar" model of the Linux world. I show that these models derive from opposing assumptions about the nature of the software-debugging task. I then make a sustained argument from the Linux experience for the proposition that "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow", suggest productive analogies with other self-correcting systems of selfish agents, and conclude with some exploration of the implications of this insight for the future of software.

Evaluating the Effects of Architectural Documentation: A Case Study of a Large Scale Open Source Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Kazman ◽  
Dennis Goldenson ◽  
Ira Monarch ◽  
William Nichols ◽  
Giuseppe Valetto
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Open Source Project ◽  
Architectural Documentation

Software Reuse in Open Source A Case Study

2014 ◽  
pp. 1900-1926
Author(s):  
Andrea Capiluppi ◽  
Klaas-Jan Stol ◽  
Cornelia Boldyreff
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Software Reuse ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Application Domain ◽  
Similar System ◽  
Counter Example ◽  
History Of ◽  
Support Software

A promising way to support software reuse is based on Component-Based Software Development (CBSD). Open Source Software (OSS) products are increasingly available that can be freely used in product development. However, OSS communities still face several challenges before taking full advantage of the “reuse mechanism”: many OSS projects duplicate effort, for instance when many projects implement a similar system in the same application domain and in the same topic. One successful counter-example is the FFmpeg multimedia project; several of its components are widely and consistently reused in other OSS projects. Documented is the evolutionary history of the various libraries of components within the FFmpeg project, which presently are reused in more than 140 OSS projects. Most use them as black-box components; although a number of OSS projects keep a localized copy in their repositories, eventually modifying them as needed (white-box reuse). In both cases, the authors argue that FFmpeg is a successful project that provides an excellent exemplar of a reusable library of OSS components.

scholarly journals Open Sourcing Proprietary Application Case Study: KIRI Website

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-86
Author(s):  
Pascal Alfadian Nugroho ◽  
Vania Natali
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Open Source Project ◽  
Commercial Purpose ◽  
Closed Source

KIRI, a previously closed source project, is a web-based public transport navigation application that serves Bandung and other cities in Indonesia. It was originally made for commercial purpose, but relatively unsuccessful. Rather than shutting it down, we transformed KIRI to an open source project. In this paper we explain such process of transformation. First, we identified technical infrastructures required by an open source project by literature review. Then, we surveyed various existing open source projects in Indonesia in terms of their completeness in technical infrastructure. Based on findings from literature review and survey, we converted KIRI into an open source project. Finally, we checked final result of this transformation, to ensure everything worked well. There were some problems found after conversion, and had been fixed accordingly. Further research is needed to see if the open sourced KIRI can attract community participation.

Press Propaganda and Subaltern Agents of Pan-Islamic Networks in the Muslim Mediterranean World prior to World War I

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odile Moreau
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
North Africa ◽  
World War ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
The Press ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores movement and circulation across the Mediterranean and seeks to contribute to a history of proto-nationalism in the Maghrib and the Middle East at a particular moment prior to World War I. The discussion is particularly concerned with the interface of two Mediterranean spaces: the Middle East (Egypt, Ottoman Empire) and North Africa (Morocco), where the latter is viewed as a case study where resistance movements sought external allies as a way of compensating for their internal weakness. Applying methods developed by Subaltern Studies, and linking macro-historical approaches, namely of a translocal movement in the Muslim Mediterranean, it explores how the Egypt-based society, al-Ittihad al-Maghribi, through its agent, Aref Taher, used the press as an instrument for political propaganda, promoting its Pan-Islamic programme and its goal of uniting North Africa.

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