Free And Open Source Software Research Articles

Application of fuzzy Delphi technique to identify analytical lenses for determining the preparation of free and open source software projects for user experience maturity

User eXperience (UX) significantly influences the success of free and open source software (FOSS) projects and is measured using UX capability maturity models (UXCMMs). Every organization desires higher levels of UX maturity; however, it requires upfront preparations and process quality control.Harmonizing processes and analytical lenses for determining preparation for UX maturity are still challenging, and studies to create them are limited. The analysis is ad hoc and based on the actors’ will and experiences. This study proposes and validates analytical lenses.Findings show that UX experts agreed that the lenses could be used with a consensus percentage of 81 %, the threshold value (d) = 0.112, and crisp values greater than α-cut = 0.5. On validation, 47.57 % of stakeholders agreed, and 52.43 % strongly agreed they were relevant. Results help evaluate the status quo and change culture and policies toward ideal preparation. Two areas are suggested for future research.

Art and archaeology in an interactive time-traveling online and museum experience. A case study on the Via Appia Antica.

This paper presents an innovative exploration of digital twinning technologies and its integration with artistic perspectives and interactive museum storytelling. It presents a physical and virtual online museum exhibition that was developed to visualize and experience changes of an archaeological landscape. Central to this exhibition was an interactive installation with a virtual 3D environment in which visitors could revisit viewpoints of past image creators like photographers, cinematographers, architects and painters. The exhibition combined digital twin technologies with artistic and archaeological research to form an immersive landscape biography.As a study area, the exhibition focused on mile V and VI of the Via Appia Antica near Rome. For six different funerary monuments, the exact locations of 110 historical images have been revisited and geo-referenced in a virtual 3D environment. Each historical image was artistically morphed into a present-day image using video technology. Additionally, visitors could explore virtual reconstructions and 3D prints of these monuments, accompanied with 3D animations.The paper discusses the motivation behind the design and setup of the museum and virtual exhibition, together with the technological challenges that were encountered. All tooling for this research was developed as Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS), allowing it to be reused. We discuss lessons learned and future application perspectives of the presented concept and installation. The work illustrates the power of blending cutting-edge technologies with art and storytelling to create a dynamic, accessible, and enriching experience of cultural heritage.

Towards sharing tools and artefacts for reusable simulations in healthcare

ABSTRACT Discrete-event simulation (DES) is a widely used computational method in health services and health economic studies. Despite increasing recognition of the advantages of open, reusable DES models for both healthcare practitioners and simulation researchers, in practice very few authors share their model code alongside a published paper. In the context of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), this paper presents a pilot framework called STARS: Sharing Tools and Artefacts for Reusable Simulations to begin to address the challenges and leverage the opportunities of sharing DES models in healthcare. STARS aligns with existing guidelines and documentation, including reproducibility initiatives, and enables computer models to be shared with users of differing technical abilities. We demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of STARS with three applied DES examples using Python. Our framework supports the development of open, reusable DES models which can enable partner healthcare organisations to preview, validate, and use models. Academic research teams can benefit from knowledge exchange, enhanced recognition and scrutiny of their work, and long-term archiving of models.

Challenges in implementing free software in small and medium-sized enterprises in the city of Montería: a case study

This study investigates challenges and opportunities in adopting free and open-source software (FOSS) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Monteria, Colombia. The research reveals that around 77.5% of SMEs prefer free software, yet surprisingly, 80% are unaware of the benefits of open-source licenses, with nearly 45% not adopting them due to lack of knowledge. Implementing FOSS in SMEs offers legal and economic advantages, including reduced software acquisition costs, compliance with data protection and privacy regulations, and fostering innovation. However, adoption barriers persist, necessitating further research for enhancing implementation in Colombian SMEs. Notably, Colombia's ethical framework for AI serves as a guide for ethical AI and open-source software deployment, aligned with sustainable development goals. This study highlights free software usage prevalence in Monteria's SMEs and critical factors hindering full adoption. Addressing challenges and leveraging potential benefits can improve efficiency, regulatory compliance, and contribute to sustainable development. Continued research in this field can promote broader and stronger implementation of FOSS in Colombian SMEs.

An integrated method to develop high temporal Landsat NDVI using free and open-source software (FOSS) GIS application

Landsat image series are long-term times series observing the earth’s surface at a relatively fine spatial resolution of 30 m on the visible and infrared channels, which can be used to monitor vegetation dynamics using band ratios such as NDVI. However, due to cloud cover, having Landsat NDVI at a high temporal resolution is impossible. This is especially found in high-humidity regions such as Indonesia, particularly in the rainy season. Whereas some studies, such as long-term phenological observations and detailed land use/land cover change detection, may require Landsat NDVI with a high temporal resolution. One of the higher temporal resolution images with similar spectral characteristics to Landsat is MODIS, which can be used to fill the gap; however, it may have a coarser spatial resolution. Thus, some methods have been developed to blend Landsat and MODIS images to create images with both Landsat spatial detail and MODIS high temporal resolution. Unfortunately, the blending methods are usually not straightforward, where complex steps are required to find and combine several techniques with advanced computational skills. This study, therefore, aims to develop an integrated method to create high temporal Landsat NDVI using free and open-source software (FOSS) GIS application, which is easily accessible and applicable.

DrogoFinder: An open-source graphical user interface for the identification of illicit drugs using infrared spectroscopy

The development of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) is being increasingly recognized as an indispensable resource for the development, validation, and replication of analytical methodologies and tools. In this context, the use of Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy for the in-situ identification of drugs requires software for the treatment of spectroscopic data, including spectral quality controls, the subtraction of possible excipients, and the comparison with well-defined libraries that can be complex and limits its application on the field analysis by non-expert users. Here we describe a user-friendly FOSS for drug identification that can be operated in an intuitive way, including automatic features such as i) quality controls that warn the user from possible technical problems during spectrum acquisition (e.g. water vapour, contaminated background), ii) the subtraction of the contribution of excipients and other substances present on the sample, and iii) the creation of custom and updated cloud-based libraries to deal with the great number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) that are constantly being developed and introduced for their consume. The proposed application was tested by expert and non-expert users with spectra from 42 drug samples measured in situ in a music festival and 39 seized samples measured in a laboratory. Non-expert users were able to flag technical problems in the spectra and to perform excipient subtractions automatically, obtaining drug identifications that matched those ones obtained by reference methods and dedicated commercial software. We share both, the code, and a standalone Windows app to reach worldwide users and scientists interested in the identification of drugs.

Improving the usability of open health service delivery simulation models using Python and web apps

One aim of Open Science is to increase the accessibility of research. Within health services research that uses discrete-event simulation, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), such as Python, offers a way for research teams to share their models with other researchers and NHS decision makers. Although the code for healthcare discrete-event simulation models can be shared alongside publications, it may require specialist skills to use and run. This is a disincentive to researchers adopting Free and Open Source Software and open science practices. Building on work from other health data science disciplines, we propose that web apps offer a user-friendly interface for healthcare models that increase the accessibility of research to the NHS, and researchers from other disciplines. We focus on models coded in Python deployed as streamlit web apps. To increase uptake of these methods, we provide an approach to structuring discrete-event simulation model code in Python so that models are web app ready. The method is general across discrete-event simulation Python packages, and we include code for both simpy and ciw implementations of a simple urgent care call centre model. We then provide a step-by-step tutorial for linking the model to a streamlit web app interface, to enable other health data science researchers to reproduce and implement our method.

APPLICATION OF NEAR INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (NIRS) IN THE MEASUREMENT OF OIL LOSS AND ITS ACCURACY COMPARED TO SOXHLET METHOD

Loss of oil during crude palm oil (CPO) extraction occurs among other things, due to the use of high temperature and pressure in the boiling process so that the oil from the fruit is absorbed and remains in the empty fruit bunches (EFB). This oil loss is generally measured using Soxhlet method. However, recently in several palm oil mills (POM), the Soxhlet method has been replaced by the Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) method which is equipped with free and open-source software (FOSS). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the application of NIRS in measuring oil loss in EFB and to test its accuracy compared to the Soxhlet method. The data is from primary source of POM during April-June 2022 period (peak harvest times). Normality test and paired T test is used to analyze data. This research also cites case studies of CPO processing companies in Indonesia in the last 10 years (2013-2022) with a focus on oil loss in EFB. The results showed that the oil loss in EFB using NIRS and Soxhlet were 0.50% and 0.49%, respectively. These two values are below the company's oil loss standard (0.62%). Both data are normally distributed and based on the paired T test, it was found that there were no significant differences in the results of oil loss analysis using the NIRS and Soxhlet methods. Compared with data for the last 10 years, they are also below the standard limit of other companies which reaches 3%. Therefore, NIRS is more recommended in terms of time efficiency, safe and does not damage the material.

Semantic interoperability for cultural heritage conservation: Workflow from ontologies to a tool for managing and sharing data

The benefits of using BIM in the construction sector are now widely recognised. From this awareness comes the aspiration to have the same advantages for the Cultural Heritage (CH) sector, to obtain more sustainability in the process. Indeed, research in recent years has been orientated in this direction. Attempts to use BIM tools to CH have shown the limits of the ability to correctly represent and transmit information, especially on cultural value and conservation activities, and on the presence of available objects, due to the lack of specific content in IFC, which means a lack of interoperability. The provision of ontologies is necessary to allow interoperability. Ontologies permit the conceptualization of a representative model of reality by defining classes, attributes, and relationships that describe a domain. The research experiments and proposes a flowchart to connect a specific ontological model for Cultural Heritage in a BIM environment. Using Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS), it is possible to modify, improve, and adapt the functions according to the specific needs of users. In addition, this paper analyses the interconnectivity among three software in the BIM environment: FreeCAD, ArchiCAD and Revit, and the steps for an exchange of information between the geometric model and its semantic properties are established. The decorated umbrella vault of Masegra Castle in Sondrio was selected as a case study to show the application of the method and your tool.

Improving the usability of open health service delivery simulation models using Python and web apps.

One aim of Open Science is to increase the accessibility of research. Within health services research that uses discrete-event simulation, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), such as Python, offers a way for research teams to share their models with other researchers and NHS decision makers. Although the code for healthcare discrete-event simulation models can be shared alongside publications, it may require specialist skills to use and run. This is a disincentive to researchers adopting Free and Open Source Software and open science practices. Building on work from other health data science disciplines, we propose that web apps offer a user-friendly interface for healthcare models that increase the accessibility of research to the NHS, and researchers from other disciplines. We focus on models coded in Python deployed as streamlit web apps. To increase uptake of these methods, we provide an approach to structuring discrete-event simulation model code in Python so that models are web app ready. The method is general across discrete-event simulation Python packages, and we include code for both simpy and ciw implementations of a simple urgent care call centre model. We then provide a step-by-step tutorial for linking the model to a streamlit web app interface, to enable other health data science researchers to reproduce and implement our method.

Platforms for Online Learning: A Product Specification

Abstract Learning Management Systems (LMS) or Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) are the core of e-learning platforms and have evolved according to the development of new information and communication technologies. In this type of software there are many products on the market, some developed by the institutions themselves (in-house), others are free and open source software (FOSS) and others are more commercial, varying in functionality and technology, but almost always adhering to the standards used in e-learning so that learning objects fulfill their purpose of being usable and reusable. This paper introduces you to current LMS / LCMS, main functions, distinctive features, related standards, and their current status. Then there is a presentation of Machine Learning as a branch of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing as a fusion discipline between computation, cognition, psychology and artificial intelligence, to end in a proposal for the incorporation of these technologies in a new generation of e-learning platforms, all in an integrated framework of interoperability and governance.

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.

Systematic review of free and open source software (FOSS) employed in ecomorphological studies with recommendations for user-friendly developments

Morphometrics is an important aspect of biological research that integrates in various ways with other branches of biology like genetics, ecology, and evolution to determine an organism's form and function. It is one of the most frequently used methods to study ecomorphology (the interaction of morphological features of organisms with environmental variables). In recent years, research in the field of morphometrics has achieved revolutionary developments from studying simple morphological variations to visualizing shape differences, thanks to free and open source software (FOSS). These FOSS not only incorporate various steps of morphometric methods such as image processing, digitization, data acquisition and statistical analyses but also help in determining the influence of ecological factors on an organism's morphology. In this article, we discussed the applications, benefits, and drawbacks of FOSS frequently employed in current ecomorphological studies. We observed that in many morphological studies, the integration of ecological data is completely missing, which is a prerequisite in determining the influential factors influencing an organism's morphology. We believe that the main reason behind the lack of integration of ecological information in these studies is the dearth of proper knowledge about the usage of presently available FOSS. To move forward, we, therefore, propose software developers to design user-friendly FOSS which will be compatible with all operating systems and can integrate all maneuvers of ecomorphological methods with common data file formats. This will help researchers to employ an ecomorphological approach to resolve various questions in biological research.

Progress with Repository-based Annotation Infrastructure for Biodiversity Applications

Progress with Repository-based Annotation Infrastructure for Biodiversity Applications

A framework for FAIR robotic datasets

It is essential to publish and make available environmental data gathered by emerging robotic platforms to contribute to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), supported by the United Nations - Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030). The transparency of these unique observational datasets needs to be supported by the corresponding robotic records. The data describing the observational platform behaviour and its performance are necessary to validate the environmental data and repeat consistently the in-situ robotic deployment. The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), proposed in this manuscript, describes how, using the established approach in Earth Sciences, the data characterising marine robotic missions can be formatted and shared following the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. The manuscript is a step-by-step guide to render marine robotic telemetry FAIR and publishable. State-of-the-art protocols for metadata and data formatting are proposed, applied and integrated automatically using Jupyter Notebooks to maximise visibility and ease of use. The method outlined here aims to be a first fundamental step towards FAIR interdisciplinary observational science.

OXREF: Open XR for Education Framework

Extended reality (XR), which encompasses virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), offers powerful affordances for improving teaching and learning experiences in a post-pandemic world. Increasingly, many governments and institutions around the world are making major investments in XR technologies to prepare education systems for the future. However, many of these investments remain isolated pilot projects which, while they attest to the potential of XR in education, are unlikely to be scaled up due to lack of sustainability and collaboration. Based on literature and empirical evidence, I have identified major barriers to the wider adoption of XR in education, including the lack of (a) open content, tools, and skills; (b) sound pedagogy and instructional design; and (c) scalability and sustainability. As a potential solution, I introduce the Open XR for Education Framework (OXREF), an empirical framework that proposes a holistic solution to XR object creation, implementation, and deployment, while covering pedagogical, technological, and policy perspectives. The contribution of the OXREF is its ability to build fit-for-purpose XR experiences in a scalable, sustainable, and collaborative manner while promoting openness, accessibility, equity, and reuse. The novelty of the proposed framework is its use of open educational resources (OER), open educational practices (OEP), as well as free and open-source software (FOSS) tools and platforms. Its cloud-based infrastructure and open licenses support viable operationalization strategies that can be implemented by educational institutions and governments.

Project Communication Management in a Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMES) in a Construction Project

ABSTRACTMicro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have become Indonesia's most essential and strategically important national economic drivers. This research focuses on an MSME involved in a construction project in 2021. This research aims to shed light on the project communication management of an MSME organization, PT Nata Kota Nusantara, simply Natakota, a micro-scale enterprise based in Bogor. Natakota was engaged in a civil construction project in a remote site area at PT GDE (GDE) in Ciwidey, Bandung. GDE is a state-owned enterprise focusing on geothermal energy and power generation. Virtual ethnography, observation, and discourse analysis were performed to reveal the project communication management process within the organization. It was unveiled that Natakota used Google Spreadsheet as a form of free and open-source software (FOSS) as their primary communication tool during the project execution. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) explains that the actor is the prime entity that shapes, drives, and accelerates the communication process within the network. This research observed the communication and collaboration between employees on several Google Spreadsheet files. In a project execution phase, communication is essential to obtain a productive project. Project communication plays a central part in communicating information flow to execute that project successfully. The results of this research show that several features in Google Spreadsheet play as actors in the ANT framework, which shapes, drives, and accelerates the internal communication process in the organization. Additionally, it appears that Google Spreadsheet could offer a competitive low-cost option for MSMEs looking to manage internal communications effectively and efficiently.Keywords: collaboration, communication, MSMEs, organization, project

Utilizing Stereography to Compare Cultural Heritage in the Past and Now: An Interactive AR Application

Due to the astonishing speed in technological progress for new heterogeneous experiences, the Mixed Reality continuum represents nowadays an invaluable tool for cultural heritage applications, and the possibility of seemingly natural interaction with virtual elements is paving the way for more immerse, ve and deeply enjoyable experiences, both in dedicated spaces, such as museums and exhibitions, and in public spaces via the latest mobile AR technologies. This paper illustrates the complete workflow followed for the design and implementation of an Augmented Reality application on a holographic table, along with critical latency-quality tradeoffs encountered when combining both high-fidelity surveys and latency-sensibility devices and experiences. A workaround is provided in order to mitigate the impact of low-importance models on the overall latency utilizing a software toolchain employing Google Maps/Earth web applications; each software comprises the toolchain Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) for a more adaptive workaround with a wider range of suitable applications. The application is then tested with the students of LaborA, which is the modeling laboratory of “Politecnico di Milano”.

Automated Identification of Toxic Code Reviews Using ToxiCR

Toxic conversations during software development interactions may have serious repercussions on a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) development project. For example, victims of toxic conversations may become afraid to express themselves, therefore get demotivated, and may eventually leave the project. Automated filtering of toxic conversations may help a FOSS community maintain healthy interactions among its members. However, off-the-shelf toxicity detectors perform poorly on a software engineering dataset, such as one curated from code review comments. To counter this challenge, we present ToxiCR , a supervised learning based toxicity identification tool for code review interactions. ToxiCR includes a choice to select one of the 10 supervised learning algorithms, an option to select text vectorization techniques, eight preprocessing steps, and a large-scale labeled dataset of 19,651 code review comments. Two out of those eight preprocessing steps are software engineering domain specific. With our rigorous evaluation of the models with various combinations of preprocessing steps and vectorization techniques, we have identified the best combination for our dataset that boosts 95.8% accuracy and an 88.9% F1-score in identifying toxic texts. ToxiCR significantly outperforms existing toxicity detectors on our dataset. We have released our dataset, pre-trained models, evaluation results, and source code publicly, which is available at https://github.com/WSU-SEAL/ToxiCR .

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.