The Ontology of the OSS Business Model

This study focuses on theory building providing a holistic conceptual framework that consists of an ontology based OSS business model and an OSS business model taxonomy. The study extends existing theory in OSS business models and corresponding taxonomies, based on the structured-case methodological approach. An exploratory study is conducted in two research cycles, for the identification, validation, and evaluation of the critical constructs of an OSS business model. Results reveal that OSS business models differ from traditional software business models, having specific features that affect the software value chain, the infrastructure, and the revenue model of an OSS oriented firm.

Software Reuse in Open Source A Case Study

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.

Factors Affecting the Development of Absorptive Capacity in the Adoption of Open Source Software

Previous research has shown that the knowledge that is available to an organization is an important factor influencing the adoption of open source software (OSS). Hence, it is important that organizations develop their absorptive capacity in order to successfully adopt OSS. Absorptive capacity refers to the ability of an organization to acquire, assimilate, and exploit new knowledge. However, no study has specifically investigated how organizations can develop their absorptive capacity by acquiring knowledge about OSS. This paper addresses this gap in research by investigating the organizational knowledge assimilation process within the context of the adoption of OSS. Based on a case study conducted at the Flemish government, a framework that is grounded in literature and that illustrates which contextual factors influence the development of absorptive capacity in the context of the adoption of OSS was developed.

Modding as an Open Source Approach to Extending Computer Game Systems

This paper examines what is known about the role of open source software development within the world of game mods and modding practices. Game modding has become a leading method for developing games by customizing or creating Open Source Software extensions to game software in general, and particularly to proprietary closed source software games. What, why, and how OSS and closed source software come together within an application system is the subject for this study. Observational and qualitative is used to highlight current practices and issues that can be associated with software engineering and game studies foundations with multiple examples of different game mods and modding practices are identified throughout this study.

The Influence of Open Source Software Volunteer Developers’ Motivations and Attitudes on Intention to Contribute

This study differs from previous studies on open source software (OSS) developer motivation by drawing upon theories of volunteerism and work motivation to investigate the motives and attitudes of OSS volunteer developers. The role of commitment is specifically interesting, which is well established in the volunteerism and work motivation literature as a predictor of turnover and positively related to work performance, but has been overlooked by OSS researchers. The authors have developed a research model relating motivations, commitment, satisfaction, and length of service to intention to contribute to OSS projects in the future. The research model is evaluated using data from an online survey of 181 OSS volunteer developers. The research results and more discussion of these areas of interest will be evaluated and discussed further in the chapter.

Analyzing OSS Project Health with Heterogeneous Data Sources

Stakeholders in Open Source Software (OSS) projects need to determine whether a project is likely to sustain for a sufficient period of time in order to justify their investments into this project. In an OSS project context, there are typically several data sources and OSS processes relevant for determining project health indicators. However, even within one project these data sources often are technically and/or semantically heterogeneous, which makes data collection and analysis tedious and error prone. In this paper, the authors propose and evaluate a framework for OSS data analysis (FOSSDA), which enables the efficient collection, integration, and analysis of data from heterogeneous sources. Major results of the empirical studies are: (a) the framework is useful for integrating data from heterogeneous data sources effectively and (b) project health indicators based on integrated data analyses were found to be more accurate than analyses based on individual non-integrated data sources.

Tool Assisted Analysis of Open Source Projects

Open Source Software (OSS) is currently a widely adopted approach to developing and distributing software. OSS code adoption requires an understanding of the structure of the code base. For a deeper understanding of the maintenance, bug fixing and development activities, the structure of the developer community also needs to be understood, especially the relations between the code and community structures. This, in turn, is essential for the development and maintenance of software containing OSS code. This paper proposes a method and support tool for exploring the relations of the code base and community structures of OSS projects. The method and proposed tool, Binoculars, rely on generic and reusable query operations, formal definitions of which are given in the paper. The authors demonstrate the applicability of Binoculars with two examples. The authors analyze a well-known and active open source project, FFMpeg, and the open source version of the IaaS cloud computing project Eucalyptus.

OSS-TMM

Open Source Software (OSS) products do not usually follow traditional software engineering development paradigms. Specifically, testing activities in OSS development may be quite different from those carried out in Closed Source Software (CSS) development. As testing and verification require a good deal of resources in OSS, it is necessary to have ways to assess and improve OSS testing processes. This paper provides a set of testing guidelines and issues that OSS developers can use to decide which testing techniques make most sense for their OSS products. This paper 1) provides a checklist that helps OSS developers identify the most useful testing techniques according to the main characteristics of their products, and 2) outlines a proposal for a method that helps assess the maturity of OSS testing processes. The method is a proposal of a Maturity Model for testing processes (called OSS-TMM). To show its usefulness, the authors apply the method to seven real-life projects. Specifically, the authors apply the method to BusyBox, Apache Httpd, and Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform to show how the checklist supports and guides the testing process of these OSS products.

Measuring Open Source Quality

There is an ample debate over the quality of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) with mixed research results. The authors show that a reason for these mixed results is that quality is being defined, measured, and evaluated differently. They report the most popular approaches including software structure measures, process measures, and maturity assessment models. The way researchers have built their samples has also contributed to the mixed results with different project properties being considered and ignored. Because FLOSS projects evolve with each release, their quality does too, and it must be measured using metrics that take into account their communities’ commitment to quality rather than just the structure of the resulting code. Challenges exist in defining what constitutes a defect or bug, and the role of modularity in affecting FLOSS quality. The authors suggest three considerations for future research on FLOSS quality models: (1) defect resolution rate, (2) kind of software product, and (3) modularity—both technical and organizational.

Framework for Graphical User Interfaces of Geospatial Early Warning Systems

An important component of Early Warning Systems (EWS) for man-made and natural hazards is the command and control unit’s Graphical User Interface (GUI). All relevant information of an EWS is concentrated in this GUI and offered to human operators. However, when designing the GUI, not only the user experience and the GUI’s screens are relevant, but also the frameworks and technologies that the GUI is built on and the implementation of the GUI itself are of great importance. Implementations differ based on their applications in different domains but the design and approaches to implement the GUIs of different EWS often show analogies. The design and development of such GUIs are performed repeatedly on some parts of the system for each EWS. Thus, the generic GUI framework of a geospatial EWS for tsunamis is introduced to enable possible synergistic effects on the development of other new related technology. The results presented here could be adopted and reused in other EWS for man-made and natural hazards.