Free And Open Source Software Projects Research Articles

The Factors Affecting User Experience Maturity in Free and Open Source Software Community: An Empirical Study

Assessing User eXperience (UX) maturity is mandatory in the free and open-source software (FOSS) community to avoid wasting resources on projects that may fall short of expectations. Best practices suggest employing UX Capability Maturity Models (UXCMMs), which often specify an evolutionary plateau toward developing a UX-matured system and quantify organizational UX maturity into maturity levels ranging from no or ad hoc improvement to integrated continuous improvement. Numerous generically developed UXCMMs exist. However, none is created for the FOSS community, and less information is available to support their perfect match. Thus, raise suspicions if they have proper UX maturity influencing factors (UXMIFs) for the FOSS community or measure the right thing. The FOSS community differs from traditional software-developing communities and may have different dynamics and UXMIFs, necessitating unique and new methodologies for their discovery. This study, therefore, aims to identify the FOSS community’s UXMIFs and evaluate the community’s knowledge of UX maturity-related concepts. Its findings may help future researchers, practitioners, and other FOSS developers to develop UXCMMs exclusive to the FOSS community. The study’s design is both qualitative and quantitative. It adopted a systematic literature review, interviews, fuzzy Delphi Method, and thematic analysis to collect and analyze data and present the findings. The study’s sample included sixty-two active FOSS projects, fifteen FOSS stakeholders, and twelve UX experts. The outcome shows that 84% of UX experts agreed on the thirty-six FOSS’s UXMIFs with threshold d = 0.143 and crisp values greater than α-cut = 0.5. User feedback and adopted technologies were ranked first, while learnability and use speed were ranked last. Similarly, FOSS stakeholders have shown a shared understanding of UX maturity, connected concepts, and impacting factors.

Bounded Ownership: Lessons Learned From Online Platforms in Creating Inclusive Goods

The article explores a part of platform imaginary that is dedicated to property rights. Specifically, it explicates a notion of ownership—called here bounded ownership—that brings benefits to owners through loosening restrictions on property use. Bounded ownership creates online spaces that are more inclusive and at the same time enables owners to govern them. To fully grasp bounded ownership, the article argues for maintaining the distinction between production and consumption and uses Zelizer’s theory of exchange circuits. With this conceptual toolbox, the article traces the principles of bounded ownership in free and open-source software (FOSS), where they have been present for several decades. It is argued that in FOSS production and consumption constitute separate circuits where ownership is enacted differently. The article then draws a parallel between FOSS and more recent commercial online platforms. It argues that FOSS projects can be considered a layer in the platform ecosystem and at the same time highlights the differences in how bounded ownership is enacted in FOSS and other platforms. While online platforms have been successful in implementing bounded ownership in various sectors, they created deep dependencies on the part of users and content producers. The article concludes by discussing platform practices that retain the inclusiveness of bounded ownership while decreasing the dependency on platforms.

Bharat Operating System Solution: A Step towards Secure India

Now a days we see the cyber attacks on government servers .The cyberspace is highly vulnerable to attacks, and is a major concern for national security. The government is conscious of the shortcomings in its cyberspace. Hence, it's performing on its own OS for advanced protection of networks and private computers. In the recent past, there have been several severe attacks by Chinese hackers on key government websites, which exposed important government data. These websites are needed fully secure network for the protection . BOSS is based on codes that are unique to its system, which makes it safe and secure .The OS has been said to be developed to replace Microsoft's Windows and other OS’s from government computers and systems in future. If this happens, it will reduce government's dependency on other OS’s .With this OS in use, data surveillance would become much easier for government agencies and bodies, as they may have the access to all or any kinds of content and data that are accessed on this OS. Considering that this OS has been developed under government's guidelines, it'll let the government regulate social networking sites. This is made possible by the development of indigenous projects by various IT giants and government sector. These private and public sectors are investing in FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) projects to fulfill their routine needs by customizing the normal FOSS projects like LINUX to suit their own domestic environment.

Free Open Source Software for Protein and Peptide Mass Spectrometry- based Science.

In the field of biology, and specifically in protein and peptide science, the power of mass spectrometry is that it is applicable to a vast spectrum of applications. Mass spectrometry can be applied to identify proteins and peptides in complex mixtures, to identify and locate post-translational modifications, to characterize the structure of proteins and peptides to the most detailed level or to detect protein-ligand non-covalent interactions. Thanks to the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement, scientists have limitless opportunities to deepen their skills in software development to code software that solves mass spectrometric data analysis problems. After the conversion of raw data files into open standard format files, the entire spectrum of data analysis tasks can now be performed integrally on FOSS platforms, like GNU/Linux, and only with FOSS solutions. This review presents a brief history of mass spectrometry open file formats and goes on with the description of FOSS projects that are commonly used in protein and peptide mass spectrometry fields of endeavor: identification projects that involve mostly automated pipelines, like proteomics and peptidomics, and bio-structural characterization projects that most often involve manual scrutiny of the mass data. Projects of the last kind usually involve software that allows the user to delve into the mass data in an interactive graphics-oriented manner. Software projects are thus categorized on the basis of these criteria: software libraries for software developers vs desktop-based graphical user interface, software for the end-user and automated pipeline-based data processing vs interactive graphics-based mass data scrutiny.

‘Open source has won and lost the war’: Legitimising commercial–communal hybridisation in a FOSS project

Information technology (IT) firms are paying developers in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects, leading to the emergence of hybrid forms of work. In order to understand how the firm–project hybridisation process occurs, we present the results of an online survey of participants in the Debian project, as well as interviews with Debian Developers. We find that the intermingling of the commercial logic of the firm and the communal logic of the project requires rhetorical legitimation. We analyse the discourses used to legitimise firm–project cooperation as well as the organisational mechanisms which facilitate this cooperation. A first phase of legitimation, based on firm adoption of open licenses and developer self-fulfilment, aims to erase the commercial/communal divide. A second more recent phase seeks to professionalise work relations inside the project and, in doing so, challenges the social order which restricts participation in FOSS. Ultimately, hybridisation raises the question of the fair distribution of the profits firms derive from FOSS.

TWI computation: a comparison of different open source GISs

The opportunities of retrieving geospatial datasets as open data and the reliability of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) GIS increased the possibilities of performing a large number of geospatial analyses. In particular, the worldwide availability of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) permits to compute several topographic indexes able to characterize the land morphology.In this paper, we evaluate the performances of different open source GIS in the calculation of the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), a widespread index in hydrological analysis that describes the tendency of an area to accumulate water. Nowadays, there is a large number of available open source desktop GIS, maintained as FOSS projects, each of them focusing on developing specific goals. Therefore, from user point of view, the choice of the best software in solving a particular task is influenced by the GIS specific features.The test was performed computing the TWI for the Rio Sinigo basin, in northern Italy. The DEM of the test area has been processed with GRASS GIS, Whitebox GAT and SAGA GIS. In order to identify equal workflows, all the combinations of available algorithms and parameters have been studied for each considered GIS. The final TWI maps produced as output were compared and discussed.

Free and Open Source Software and FRAND‐based patent licenses

In the context of digital transformation, both standards and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) can be seen as key to success for innovation. However, the increasing role of FOSS in the ICT sector has provoked the question of interplay and compatibility between FOSS and standardization processes. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of the different licensing regimes, FOSS licenses and fair, reasonable, and non‐discriminatory (FRAND)‐based licenses, and to shed some light on the current debate by analyzing possible tensions between some of the most prominent FOSS licenses and their interaction with FRAND‐based patent licenses. The article will begin with an overview of the history and context of FOSS licenses and FRAND‐based licensing regimes, continue with a legal review of the actual language of prominent FOSS licenses, and provide further thoughts on future opportunities and challenges for the interaction between FOSS projects and standard processes, with a particular view on FOSS implementations of standards.

Challenges of Implementing Free and Open Source Software (FOSS): Evidence from the Indian Educational Setting

<p class="3">The use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), a subset of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), can reduce the cost of purchasing software. Despite the benefit in the initial purchase price of software, deploying software requires total cost that goes beyond the initial purchase price. Total cost is a silent issue of FOSS and can only be evaluated in the particular environment in which it is adopted, in this case Kerala, India, fora state-level FOSS project called IT@School. This project is one of the largest deployments of free open source software FOSS-based ICT education in the world and impacts 6 million students and 200,000 teachers every year. This study analyzes the perception of 43 senior FOSS implementation project officials. It details how FOSS was introduced and reports on major challenges and how those challenges were overcome in a secondary educational setting in India. Email interviews, document analysis, and online case studies were used to collect the data. The lack of adequate resources to train the teachers was the single biggest challenge in the adoption of FOSS. The emerging strategies for efficient FOSS implementation could be used in other states in India and in other developing countries.</p>

WEB MAPPING ARCHITECTURES BASED ON OPEN SPECIFICATIONS AND FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN THE WATER DOMAIN

Abstract. The availability of water-related data and information across different geographical and jurisdictional scales is of critical importance for the conservation and management of water resources in the 21st century. Today information assets are often found fragmented across multiple agencies that use incompatible data formats and procedures for data collection, storage, maintenance, analysis, and distribution. The growing adoption of Web mapping systems in the water domain is reducing the gap between data availability and its practical use and accessibility. Nevertheless, more attention must be given to the design and development of these systems to achieve high levels of interoperability and usability while fulfilling different end user informational needs. This paper first presents a brief overview of technologies used in the water domain, and then presents three examples of Web mapping architectures based on free and open source software (FOSS) and the use of open specifications (OS) that address different users’ needs for data sharing, visualization, manipulation, scenario simulations, and map production. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate how the latest developments in OS for geospatial and water-related data collection, storage, and sharing, combined with the use of mature FOSS projects facilitate the creation of sophisticated interoperable Web-based information systems in the water domain.

Can FOSS projects benefit from integrating Kanban: a case study

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Agile Software Development (ASD) have both been recognized as important software development methods; they have many success stories and share some similarities. However, there is a lack of research regarding the comprehensive integration of the two. This work presents a single case of a hybrid student FOSS project where ASD and FOSS were combined and reports if this combination benefits the contributors. We conducted Action Research (AR) with one sub-team of a large hybrid student FOSS project, and performed three AR cycles based on the Kanban method. The Kanban practices visualize the workflow, make policies explicit and implement feedback loops were examined during the AR cycles. They are discussed in detail in this paper, which has two main contributions: first, it describes a real world situation, where Kanban is applied to a hybrid student FOSS project, and second, it determines that the combination is experienced as beneficial by contributors. Study participants report a positive effect on communication with other teams and stakeholders due to the use of the Kanban and regard their time acquiring knowledge about Kanban practices as well spent.

Team Project Experiences in Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS)

Providing students with the professional, communication, and technical skills necessary to contribute to an ongoing software project is critical, yet often difficult in higher education. Involving student teams in real-world projects developed by professional software engineers for actual users is invaluable. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has emerged as an important approach to creating, managing, and distributing software products. Involvement in a FOSS project provides students with experience developing within a professional environment, with a professional community, and has the additional benefit that all communication and artifacts are publicly accessible. Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) projects benefit the human condition in some manner. They can range from disaster management to microfinance to election-monitoring applications. This article discusses the benefits and challenges of students participating in HFOSS projects within the context of undergraduate computing degree programs. This article reports on a 6-year study of students' self-reported attitudes and learning from participation in an HFOSS project. Results indicate that working on an HFOSS project increases interest in computing. In addition, students perceive that they are gaining experience in developing software in a distributed environment with the attendant skills of communication, distributed teamwork, and more.

An empirical study of FOSS developers patterns of contribution: Challenges for data linkage and analysis

The majority of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers are mobile and often use different identities in the projects or communities they participate in. These characteristics pose challenges for researchers studying the presence and contributions of developers across multiple repositories. In this paper, we present a methodology, employ various statistical measures, and leverage Bayesian networks to study the patterns of contribution of 502 developers in both Version Control System (VCS) and mailing list repositories in 20 GNOME projects. Our findings shows that only a small percentage of developers are contributing to both repositories and this cohort is making more commits than they are posting messages to mailing lists. The implications of these findings for understanding the patterns of contribution in FOSS projects and on the quality of the final product are discussed.

Free and open source software (FOSS) as a model domain for answering big questions about creativity

In free and open source software (FOSS), computer code is made freely accessible and can be modified by anyone. It is a creative domain with many unique features; the FOSS mode of creativity has also influenced many aspects of contemporary cultural production. In this article we identify a number of fundamental but unresolved general issues in the study of creativity, then examine the potential for the study of FOSS to inform these topics. Archival studies of the genesis of FOSS projects, coupled with laboratory studies detailing the psychological processes involved in software creation, can provide converging evidence on the nature of creativity in software design. Such a research program has broad implications both for theories of creativity and for real-world innovation in software and other forms of digital cultural production.

VIRAL OPEN SOURCE: COMPETITION VS. SYNERGY

The creation of free and open source software (FOSS) through social networks has been celebrated as one of the most interesting and inspiring developments of the information age. The main legal platform selected for facilitating this collaborative creation is the GNU General Public License (GPL). Software released under the GPL enables anyone to use, modify, and distribute the code. Yet, these rights are contingent upon virality: every copy or work based on the original code must also be subject to such terms and conditions. This article analyzes the interesting and intricate effects of virality on welfare and innovation. Virality increases motivations for parallel innovation, both in open source and in commercial code, inter alia by facilitating competition among networks and by preventing commercial firms from appropriating FOSS. At the same time, by almost closing the door on synergies between FOSS and commercial technologies, it limits cumulative innovation based on synergy and interoperability. As shown, FOSS creates an even stronger anti-commons tragedy than the patent regime. Virality's (non)regulation will thus determine the balance, as well as the connecting bridges, adopted by society between the two modes of production as well as between competition and synergy. While this issue arises in other contexts, the unique features of the software industry and of FOSS raise complex challenges. This article then analyzes market and legal responses to the GPL's virality. Such analysis is timely given that the viral GPL has become standard in many socially produced FOSS projects.

Viral Open Source: Competition vs. Synergy

The creation of free and open source software (FOSS) through social networks has been celebrated as one of the most interesting and inspiring developments of the information age. The main legal platform selected for facilitating this collaborative creation is the GNU General Public License (GPL). Software released under the GPL enables anyone to use, modify, and distribute the code. Yet, these rights are contingent upon virality: every copy or work based on the original code must also be subject to such terms and conditions. This article analyzes the interesting and intricate effects of virality on welfare: Virality increases motivations for parallel innovation, both in open source and in commercial code, inter alia by facilitating competition among networks and by preventing the appropriability of viral FOSS by commercial firms. At the same time, by almost closing the door on synergies between FOSS and commercial technologies, it limits cumulative innovation based on synergy and interoperability. As shown, FOSS creates an even stronger anti-commons tragedy than the patent regime. Virality's (non)regulation will thus determine the balance, as well as the connecting bridges, adopted by society between the two modes of production as well as between competition and synergy. While this issue arises in other contexts, the unique features of the software industry and of FOSS raise complex challenges. The article then analyzes market and legal responses to the GPL's virality. Such analysis is timely given that the viral GPL has become standard in many socially-produced FOSS projects.

Ithaca worldwide flood alert system: the web framework

Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation, and Action (ITHACA) is developing a worldwide early warning system for flood events (Albanese et al. 2008). The system collects rainfall data from NASA Tropical Rainfall Monitoring Mission website every 3 h, processes them, and compares them to historical data series to detect an alert level for each basin. Watershed layer of HYDRO1k, developed at the US Geological Survey’s Centre for Earth Resources Observation and Sciences, is constituted by a territorial subdivision at different levels, increasing details from levels 1 to 6; watershed at maximum detail (level-6 basin) are used for the system. A grid-computing approach is adopted to face the heavy computational load while a web-fruition framework is planned to give the widest access to the output the system produces. The user interface shows ongoing events on a map, where it is also possible to add other feeds (i.e., by Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System). The user can zoom to the alerted countries by an interactive list or have additional information on the event and possibly an estimate of the affected population shown. The framework is based on pure Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) products and common standards, according to ITHACA internal directives and following United Nations Geographic Information Working Group directives that encourage interoperability and FOSS tools adoption. The framework is a development of ITHACA infrastructure for web GIS applications; it is based on Model Controller View (MCV) architectural pattern that makes it possible to isolate the logic of the application from the interface. In this way, a change in one of the two parts does not affect the other making maintenance easier in the long term. From this point of view a controller collects, the model manipulates application data, and the view presents results to the user. Here, a Python-based MCV framework named Django is adopted; interfaces are built using JavaScript classes which some FOSS projects make available. Some OpenLayers classes are modified and combined with Ext and GeoExt libraries to increase the interaction the user can have with the interface. Data are symbolized using common Open Geospatial Consortium Styled Layer Descriptor standard. Caching mechanism for Web Mapping Service base layers is adopted.

Leveraging Free and Open Source Software to Model Teaching and Learning in Computer Science Education

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is not only seen by computer science departments as an optional free and low cost technology to support their IT infrastructure and administrative duties, but also as a methodology to improve pedagogy and provide opportunities for students to learn. As a result, many teachers are turning to FOSS projects and communities as effective tools to teach computer science courses and give their students significant real-world experience. However, few teaching and learning models exist that can help computer science teachers provide guidance and mentorship for their students' involvement in FOSS projects. In order to address this gap in computer science education, this paper presents a teaching and learning model that was evaluated using a series of pilot studies conducted with software engineering students. Experiences and lessons learnt from the pilot studies shows one possible way teachers can guide students' involvement in FOSS projects and how this approach can be integrated into a formally structured curriculum. Index Terms—Capstone projects, computer science education, curriculum design, open source software communities, open source software projects, software engineering.

A global collaboration to deploy help to China

A firsthand account of an international team effort to install the Sahana disaster-management system in Chengdu, Sichuan after an earthquake. On Monday May 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale struck in Sichuan Province in southwestern China, destroying homes, schools, hospitals, roads, and vital power and communication infrastructure. More than 45 million people were affected---tens of thousands were killed, hundreds of thousands injured, millions of people were evacuated and left homeless, and millions of buildings were destroyed. When the earthquake hit, several members of what became an international, volunteer, disaster-management IT team were attending a workshop in Washington, D.C. The workshop was organized by the IBM Office of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs department to train IBM personnel and others in the use and deployment of Sahana, a free and open source software (FOSS) disaster management system. Sahana, which means relief in Sinhalese, is a Web-based collaboration tool that helps manage information resources during a disaster recovery effort. It supports a wide range of relief efforts from finding missing persons, to managing volunteers, tracking resources, and coordinating refugee camps. Sahana enables government groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the victims themselves to work together during a disaster recovery effort. Over the next several weeks, the team members, distributed among several cities (Beijing and Chengdu in China, Hartford and New York in the U.S., and Colombo in Sri Lanka), worked together over global communication channels to configure and deploy Sahana in Chengdu, in order to support the disaster recovery effort there. The organizations involved in the collaboration included: • The Lanka Software Foundation (LSF), developers of the Sahana system. Three LSF members, led by the second author, were conducting the training workshop. • Various departments of IBM , including Business Continuity and Resiliency Services. Ten employees led by the fourth author, who organized the workshop, were receiving instruction in how to deploy and use Sahana. • The Humanitarian FOSS Project (H-FOSS), an NSF-funded effort aimed at revitalizing undergraduate computing education. Four students and their mentors, the first and third authors, were attending the workshop as developers and undergraduate members of the Sahana community. • IBM China . Initially, local teams in Beijing and Chengdu consisting of corporate citizenship, government relations, and technical professionals led in demonstrating Sahana to local officials, securing buy-in, and establishing channels to proceed. Then a large team of developers, language specialists, and others, including a team based in Chengdu, Sichuan, eventually took charge of the deployment effort in Chengdu. The fifth author was a member of the China development team. Almost immediately after the earthquake, discussions were held between IBM, IBM China, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Chengdu city government in Sichuan province. Once the Chengdu government expressed real interest in deploying Sahana, a team was formed to begin the process of localizing Sahana---that is, translating its user interface into simplified Chinese. The team was led by executives and software developers from IBM-China and assisted by Sahana team members in Colombo and student H-FOSS volunteers in Hartford. The team's organizational structure followed the normal procedure involved in previous Sahana deployments---a local group in close proximity to the incident supported by volunteers from the global Sahana community. In this case IBM-China, including some who were directly affected by the disaster, took the lead in deploying Sahana over an intensive three-week period. The decision by the Chengdu government to proceed with the deployment was taken on May 21, 2008 and a revised and localized version of Sahana was deployed in Chengdu on May 25. On June 12 we learned that 42 families had been reunited with the help of Sahana. This article provides an inside look at the deployment effort. It describes how a diverse, multidisciplinary team---professional programmers, software engineers, executives from a large global enterprise, students, faculty, and humanitarian IT specialists from a global FOSS community---worked together to assist the earthquake recovery effort. The success of the collaboration illustrates the power of virtual communities working across international boundaries using a variety of electronic communication software. It also demonstrates that the Internet has truly made us all neighbors and is constantly forcing us to redefine our concept of community.

Foss 101

Can engaging students in free and open source software(FOSS) pique their interest in computer science? This paper describes an introductory computer science course that introduced students to using FOSS, to contributing to a humanitarian FOSS project, and to studying the broader impact of FOSS on our society. Students learned basic webprogramming skills (PHP/MySQL) and made small but significant contributions to a global FOSS project. Mistakes were made and opportunities were missed. But overall theexperiment was a success and the experience was enjoyable and educational for students and instructor alike. By building on what worked well, this course could serve as a model for incorporating study of FOSS into the introductory computing curriculum.

Adoption, Improvement, and Disruption

This article develops a model of open source disruption in enterprise software markets. It addresses the question: Is free and open source software (FOSS) likely to disrupt markets for commercial enterprise software? The conventional wisdom is that open source provision works best for low-level system-oriented technologies, while large, complex enterprise business applications are best served by commercial software vendors. The authors challenge the conventional wisdom by developing a two-stage model of open source disruption in enterprise software markets that emphasizes a virtuous cycle of adoption and lead-user improvement of the software. The two stages are an initial incubation stage (the I-Stage) and a subsequent snowball stage (the S-Stage). Case studies of several FOSS projects demonstrate the model’s ex post predictive value. The authors then apply the model to SugarCRM, an emerging open source CRM application, to make ex ante predictions regarding its potential to disrupt commercial CRM incumbents.