The Effects of Communication Patterns on the Success of Open Source Software Projects

Drawing on the theoretical lens of communication patterns in organizational theory, this research analyzed the longitudinal success of open source software (OSS) projects by employing social network analysis method, based on extensive analyses of empirical data. This study is expected to provide an understanding on how communication patterns established in different roles and different levels. The authors not only measured OSS success from both developers and users' perspectives, but also extended the existing research by including the potential relationships among these success measures in the estimation model. Following the panel data econometric analysis methodology, they evaluated their research hypotheses using the Three-Stage Least Squares model, accounting for both time-period and project fixed effects. The authors' results indicated that according to the objectives of projects, a proper and planned control for the communication among team members is crucial for the success of OSS projects.

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Barriers Faced by Women in Software Development Projects

Information ◽

10.3390/info10100309 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 309

Author(s):

Edna Dias Canedo ◽

Heloise Acco Tives ◽

Madianita Bogo Marioti ◽

Fabiano Fagundes ◽

José Antonio Siqueira de Cerqueira

Keyword(s):

Software Development ◽

Computer Science ◽

Open Source ◽

Gender Equity ◽

Gender Bias ◽

Open Source Software ◽

Development Projects ◽

Software Projects ◽

Team Members ◽

Workplace Conditions

Computer science is a predominantly male field of study. Women face barriers while trying to insert themselves in the study of computer science. Those barriers extend to when women are exposed to the professional area of computer science. Despite decades of social fights for gender equity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and in computer science in general, few women participate in computer science, and some of the reasons include gender bias and lack of support for women when choosing a computer science career. Open source software development has been increasingly used by companies seeking the competitive advantages gained by team diversity. This diversification of the characteristics of team members includes, for example, the age of the participants, the level of experience, education and knowledge in the area, and their gender. In open source software projects women are underrepresented and a series of biases are involved in their participation. This paper conducts a systematic literature review with the objective of finding factors that could assist in increasing women’s interest in contributing to open source communities and software development projects. The main contributions of this paper are: (i) identification of factors that cause women’s lack of interest (engagement), (ii) possible solutions to increase the engagement of this public, (iii) to outline the profile of professional women who are participating in open source software projects and software development projects. The main findings of this research reveal that women are underrepresented in software development projects and in open source software projects. They represent less than 10% of the total developers and the main causes of this underrepresentation may be associated with their workplace conditions, which reflect male gender bias.

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The Economics of Community Open Source Software Projects: An Empirical Analysis of Maintenance Effort

Advances in Software Engineering ◽

10.1155/2010/685950 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2010 ◽

pp. 1-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Eugenio Capra ◽

Chiara Francalanci ◽

Francesco Merlo

Keyword(s):

Open Source ◽

Open Source Software ◽

Effort Estimation ◽

Estimation Model ◽

Software Projects ◽

Increasing Trend ◽

Entropy Effect ◽

Degradation Effect ◽

Over Time

Previous contributions in the empirical software engineering literature have consistently observed a quality degradation effect of proprietary code as a consequence of maintenance. This degradation effect, referred to as entropy effect, has been recognized to be responsible for significant increases in maintenance effort. In the Open Source context, the quality of code is a fundamental design principle. As a consequence, the maintenance effort of Open Source applications may not show a similar increasing trend over time. The goal of this paper is to empirically verify the entropy effect for a sample of 4,289 community Open Source application versions. Analyses are based on the comparison with an estimate of effort obtained with a traditional effort estimation model. Findings indicate that community Open Source applications show a slower growth of maintenance effort over time, and, therefore, are less subject to the entropy effect.

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What Makes Open Source Software Projects Impactful: A Data-Driven Approach

12th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Internetware ◽

10.1145/3457913.3457932 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Huaiwei Yang ◽

Shuang Liu ◽

Lin Gui ◽

Yongxin Zhao ◽

Jun Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Open Source ◽

Open Source Software ◽

Data Driven ◽

Software Projects ◽

Data Driven Approach

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Differential impacts of social influence on initial and sustained participation in open source software projects

Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology ◽

10.1002/asi.24481 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xuan Yang ◽

Xiao Li ◽

Daning Hu ◽

Harry Jiannan Wang

Keyword(s):

Social Influence ◽

Open Source ◽

Open Source Software ◽

Software Projects

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MCR: Open-Source Software to Automate Compilation of Health Study Report-Back

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18116104 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (11) ◽

pp. 6104

Author(s):

Erin Polka ◽

Ellen Childs ◽

Alexa Friedman ◽

Kathryn S. Tomsho ◽

Birgit Claus Henn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Control ◽

Open Source ◽

Open Source Software ◽

Research Team ◽

Self Determination ◽

Health Study ◽

Equitable Access ◽

Team Members ◽

Study Participants ◽

The Impact

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.

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