Open Source Development Research Articles

Deploying Islandora as a Digital Repository Platform: a Multifaceted Experience at the University of Denver Libraries

The purpose of a highly integrated software framework such as Islandora is to satisfy as many workflows as possible in a single ecosystem for a digital repository. The Library Technology Department at the University of Denver was tasked with implementing an Islandora open-source framework for its Special Collections Department because the current host was being retired. Although Islandora's front-end is tailored for librarians, its back-end is complex, and built upon many subsystems. A failure in any of the subsystems guarantees a domino effect and a chain reaction which can obfuscate the root cause of the issue. Though product documentation and support communication channels exist, many of the problems we faced were unique to our specific hardware and software configuration. The development team had to learn fast, and be innovative, agile, and systematic in order to work with such a complicated system. This article describes the tactics used in this repository development effort, as well as the library's stakeholder relationship management. We believe our experience will be illustrative for administrators, librarians and developers, and help them better understand the many facets of an in-house, open-source digital repository development project.

A Study on Career Analysis Technique of Open Source Developers with Focus on GitHub Case

A Study on Career Analysis Technique of Open Source Developers with Focus on GitHub Case

Digital image modification detection using color information and its histograms

The rapid development of many open source and commercial image editing software makes the authenticity of the digital images questionable. Copy-move forgery is one of the most widely used tampering techniques to create desirable objects or conceal undesirable objects in a scene. Existing techniques reported in the literature to detect such tampering aim to improve the robustness of these methods against the use of JPEG compression, blurring, noise, or other types of post processing operations. These post processing operations are frequently used with the intention to conceal tampering and reduce tampering clues. A robust method based on the color moments and other five image descriptors is proposed in this paper. The method divides the image into fixed size overlapping blocks. Clustering operation divides entire search space into smaller pieces with similar color distribution. Blocks from the tampered regions will reside within the same cluster since both copied and moved regions have similar color distributions. Five image descriptors are used to extract block features, which makes the method more robust to post processing operations. An ensemble of deep compositional pattern-producing neural networks are trained with these extracted features. Similarity among feature vectors in clusters indicates possible forged regions. Experimental results show that the proposed method can detect copy-move forgery even if an image was distorted by gamma correction, addictive white Gaussian noise, JPEG compression, or blurring.

오픈소스 소프트웨어 운영자 역할이 성과에 미치는 영향: 인상형성과 사회적 자본 이론을 중심으로

With the increasing socio-economic value of an open collaboration over the Internet, it has become significantly important to successfully manage open source software development program. Most of the previous research have focused on various factors that influence the performance of the project, but studies on how the project owners recognized as “leader” affect the outcome of the project are very limited. This research investigates how individual and governance characteristics of an owner influences the performance of project based on impression formation and social capital theory. For a data set, we collect 611 Repositories and the owner’s data from the open source development platform Github, and we form knowledge sharing network of an each repository by using social network analysis. We use hierarchical regression analysis, and our results show that a leader, who exposes a lot of one’s personal information or who has actively followed and showed interests to communicate with other developers, affects positive impacts on project performance. A leader who has a high centrality in knowledge sharing network also positively affects on project performance. On the other hand, if a leader was highly willing to accept external knowledge or is recognized as an expert in the community with large numbers of followers, the result show negative impacts on project performance. The research may serve as a useful guideline not only for the future open source software projects but also for the effective management of different types of open collaboration.

Symposium 1: Problematising Participatory Research for Developing Semantic Web Technologies

This paper contributes to a symposium on ‘Designs for learning with the Semantic Web (Web 3.0)’ by presenting the outcomes of critical reflection on methodological issues relating to the design of semantic web technologies for networked learning. Semantic web technologies show great potential for supporting networked learning but are unsettled and under-researched in educational contexts, thus classed within this symposium as ‘emergent’. The design of this emergent and complex technology is considered in relation to empirical research data from an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional technology enhanced learning (TEL) research project. The research project explored the potential of semantic web technologies in Higher Education (HE) to support the use of cases in teaching and learning. Data was collected throughout the project including researcher's wiki-based reflective research logs, transcripts from project meetings and interviews and focus groups with participants and observation notes. Critical reflection on the research process was supported through engagement with this data, which allowed the recognition of nondeterministic constructs and fluidity and contingency in research practice. Therefore, this paper problematises participation by highlighting uncertainties and contingencies inherent in the enactment of participatory research methodology. Rather than viewing uncertainty and contingency as devaluing research, the case is made that this can allow for enrichment of the development process and subsequently the research outcomes. The flexible and emergent nature of semantic web technology matched with participatory approaches in the design of emergent technologies allows for reflection, adaptation and flexible action relating to pedagogy and practices which is essential in educational contexts that are rapidly changing. The findings highlight the uncertain and contingent nature of (1) the settings where design took place; (2) acceptance or rejection of research methods; and (3) the community groups that emerged as interested parties in our work. Vignettes from two different research settings are used to show how participation was enacted reflectively and responsively leading to some positive outcomes; including the development of new teaching practices and new technologies, which were fed back into the open source development of educational semantic web technologies. Therefore, researchers in the field of networked learning are encouraged to ‘design with participatory research’ to match the challenges posed by complex and emergent technologies and changeable educational contexts rather than attempting to apply standardised forms of design methodologies.

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

Sustaining large open source development efforts requires recruiting new participants; however, a lack of architectural documentation might inhibit new participants since large amounts of project knowledge are unavailable to newcomers. We present the results of a multitrait, multimethod analysis of the effects of introducing architectural documentation into a substantial open source project—the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). HDFS had only minimal architectural documentation, and we wanted to discover whether the putative benefits of architectural documentation could be observed over time. To do this, we created and publicized an architecture document and then monitored its usage and effects on the project. The results were somewhat ambiguous: by some measures the architecture documentation appeared to effect the project but not by others. Perhaps of equal importance is our discovery that the project maintained, in its web-accessible JIRA archive of software issues and fixes, enough architectural discussion to support architectural thinking and reasoning. This “emergent” architecture documentation served an important purpose in recording core project members’ architectural concerns and resolutions. However, this emergent architecture documentation did not serve all project members equally well; it appears that those on the periphery of the project—newcomers and adopters—still require explicit architecture documentation, as we will show.

Methodological challenges and analytic opportunities for modeling and interpreting Big Healthcare Data.

Managing, processing and understanding big healthcare data is challenging, costly and demanding. Without a robust fundamental theory for representation, analysis and inference, a roadmap for uniform handling and analyzing of such complex data remains elusive. In this article, we outline various big data challenges, opportunities, modeling methods and software techniques for blending complex healthcare data, advanced analytic tools, and distributed scientific computing. Using imaging, genetic and healthcare data we provide examples of processing heterogeneous datasets using distributed cloud services, automated and semi-automated classification techniques, and open-science protocols. Despite substantial advances, new innovative technologies need to be developed that enhance, scale and optimize the management and processing of large, complex and heterogeneous data. Stakeholder investments in data acquisition, research and development, computational infrastructure and education will be critical to realize the huge potential of big data, to reap the expected information benefits and to build lasting knowledge assets. Multi-faceted proprietary, open-source, and community developments will be essential to enable broad, reliable, sustainable and efficient data-driven discovery and analytics. Big data will affect every sector of the economy and their hallmark will be ‘team science’.

Following the Open-Source Trail Outside the Digital World: The Case of Open-Source Seeds

In this article, we assess the application of the open-source development model in the field of agricultural research and development, as a potential tool for upholding both public scientific research, and farmer-led innovation and farmers’ rights. First, we provide an overview of the problems associated with the rise of IPRs in agriculture in view of global challenges such as food security and environmental sustainability, and present the debate on farmers’ rights, including its rationale and international policy and legal responses. We then review open source initiatives in the digital domain, including successes and shortcomings, and offer our understanding of relevant terminologies. We explore the parallels between software development and innovation in agriculture and review ongoing open-source agriculture-related initiatives. We particularly address the potential for open-source systems to address existing asymmetries in capabilities and contribute to global challenges such as food security.

GeoSRM – Online geospatial safety risk model for the GB rail network

RSSB and the University of Southampton's GeoData Institute have collaborated to research and develop a toolkit for managing large volumes of rail risk data. The pilot system encompasses concepts of highly complex geospatial 'big data', open standards, open source development tools and methodologies, and enables stakeholders to filter, analyse and visualise risk across the rail network, for a range of risk models. These include train derailments, suicides and passenger slip, trips and falls, and feature a wide range of spatially dependent parameters that affect the causal, escalation and consequence mechanisms. The risk has been calculated to a high resolution, splitting 2,100,000 m of track typically into 10 m sections. By creating geospatial representations of risk, the tool can help to identify risk hotspots and in this way contribute to the improvement of rail safety. Once scaled up to a National level and full range of risk models, the tool will deliver a powerful capability, unique across Europe. Further research is extending the prototype to incorporate live and historic environmental and related rail incident data to augment and improve the risk model.

High-resolution stochastic integrated thermal–electrical domestic demand model

This paper describes the extension of CREST’s existing electrical domestic demand model into an integrated thermal–electrical demand model. The principle novelty of the model is its integrated structure such that the timing of thermal and electrical output variables are appropriately correlated. The model has been developed primarily for low-voltage network analysis and the model’s ability to account for demand diversity is of critical importance for this application. The model, however, can also serve as a basis for modelling domestic energy demands within the broader field of urban energy systems analysis. The new model includes the previously published components associated with electrical demand and generation (appliances, lighting, and photovoltaics) and integrates these with an updated occupancy model, a solar thermal collector model, and new thermal models including a low-order building thermal model, domestic hot water consumption, thermostat and timer controls and gas boilers. The paper reviews the state-of-the-art in high-resolution domestic demand modelling, describes the model, and compares its output with three independent validation datasets. The integrated model remains an open-source development in Excel VBA and is freely available to download for users to configure and extend, or to incorporate into other models.

Truck–Rail Intermodal Connector Performance Evaluation: Illinois Case Study

This paper describes the development and use of an open source, geospatially enabled framework and applies that platform to the analysis of freight truck travel time data that were extracted from the National Performance Management Research Dataset (NPMRDS). The NPMRDS is provided by HERE-Navteq and the American Transportation Research Institute under a contract with the U.S. Department of Transportation. The analysis platform is based on the PostgreSQL database and uses the PostGIS extension to enable spatial analysis inside the database. The study team developed a methodology to combine information from the NPMRDS, the National Highway Planning Network, and the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Illinois Roadway Information System statewide roadway inventory. Geographic information system tools and the capabilities of the PostgreSQL database addressed incompatibilities and inconsistencies between supporting data sets and allowed the study team to find, access, use, and combine data from different sources. The study used these data sources to develop roadway performance measures for truck–rail intermodal connectors (IMCs) and compare these connectors with roads that had similar attributes. When compared with roadway segments with similar characteristics, speeds on IMCs often demonstrated greater uniformity and consistency.

Visualization of High Throughput Genomic Data Using R and Bioconductor

DNA microarrays, technology aims at the measurement of mRNA levels in particular cells or tissues for many genes simultaneously. Microarray in molecular biology results in huge datasets that need rigorous computational analysis to extract biological information that lead to some conclusion. From printing of microarray chip to hybridization and scanning process it results in variability in quality of data due to which actual information is either lost or it is over represented. Computational analysis plays an important part related to the processing of the biological information embedded in microarray results and for comparing gene expression result obtained from different samples in different condition for biological interpretation. A basic, yet challenging task is quality control and visualization of microarray gene expression data. One of the most popular platforms for microarray analysis is Bioconductor, an open source and open development software project for the analysis and comprehension of genomic data, based on the R programming language. This paper describes specific procedures for conducting quality assessment of Affymetrix Gene chip using data from GEO database GSE53890 and describes quality control packages of bioconductor with reference to visualization plots for detailed analysis. This paper can be helpful for any researcher working on microarray analysis for quality control analysis of affymetrix chip along with scientific interpretations.

Open Questions in Open Source: Exploring Incentives, Licensing and Competition

Open Source Software (OSS) has grown in importance over the last few decades and now constitutes an important part of the software market particularly in mobile and web technology. In this paper, we provide a preliminary theoretical framework for analyzing currently unexamined issues regarding developer participation in OSS and competition between open source and proprietary software. We start by looking at the upstream market where developers voluntarily contribute effort into the development of OSS without claiming any copyright for their contributions. We explore the relationship between open source licensing and developers' effort provision and suggest an empirical test of developer motivation based on the results of our model. We also look at issues of competition in the software market downstream and provide some conjectures of how proprietary competition can influence upstream OSS development under different license regimes.

Classifying Obstructive and Nonobstructive Code Clones of Type I Using Simplified Classification Scheme: A Case Study

Code cloning is a part of many commercial and open source development products. Multiple methods for detecting code clones have been developed and finding the clones is often used in modern quality assurance tools in industry. There is no consensus whether the detected clones are negative for the product and therefore the detected clones are often left unmanaged in the product code base. In this paper we investigate how obstructive code clones of Type I (duplicated exact code fragments) are in large software systems from the perspective of the quality of the product after the release. We conduct a case study at Ericsson and three of its large products, which handle mobile data traffic. We show how to use automated analogy-based classification to decrease the classification effort required to determine whether a clone pair should be refactored or remain untouched. The automated method allows classifying 96% of Type I clones (both algorithms and data declarations) leaving the remaining 4% for the manual classification. The results show that cloning is common in the studied commercial software, but that only 1% of these clones are potentially obstructive and can jeopardize the quality of the product if left unmanaged.

Applied GIS: Web GIS Serving Public Safety in Central Asia.

Different mapping technologies for displaying geo-referenced data over the web can be used in different situations. This paper discusses the design, development and implementation of a web-based spatial visualisation tool built from a combination of open source software packages. The online mapping application developed for tracking drug related crime was built on GeoServer – an open-source server written in Java for sharing, processing and editing geospatial data; Apache Server as a web server; PostgreSQL and its extension PostGIS as an object-relational database for location queries to be run in SQL; OpenLayers an open source JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers; and finally Drupal, a free, open-source web development platform for online content and user communities. The complex workings of the system are hidden from the user and the automatic rendering design used in this system enables users with no prior knowledge of GIS to visualise their data and immediately gain some understanding of the spatial structure of their data.

Following the Open Source Trail Outside the Digital World: Open Source Applications in Agricultural Research and Development

In this article, we assess the application of the open source development model in the field of agricultural research and development, as a potential tool for upholding both public scientific re- search, and farmer-led innovation and farmers' rights. First, we provide an overview of the problems associated with the rise of IPRs in agriculture in view of global challenges such as food security and environmental sustainability, and present the debate on farmers' rights, including its rationale and international policy and legal responses. We then review open-source initiatives in the digital domain, including successes and shortcomings, and offer our understanding of relevant terminologies. We explore the parallels between software development and innovation in agriculture, review ongoing open source agriculture-related initiatives, and identify lessons learnt. We particularly assess the po- tential for open source systems to address existing asymmetries in capabilities and contribute to glob- al challenges such as food security.

Integrating new Storage Technologies into EOS

The EOS[1] storage software was designed to cover CERN disk-only storage use cases in the medium-term trading scalability against latency. To cover and prepare for long-term requirements the CERN IT data and storage services group (DSS) is actively conducting R&D and open source contributions to experiment with a next generation storage software based on CEPH[3] and ethernet enabled disk drives. CEPH provides a scale-out object storage system RADOS and additionally various optional high-level services like S3 gateway, RADOS block devices and a POSIX compliant file system CephFS. The acquisition of CEPH by Redhat underlines the promising role of CEPH as the open source storage platform of the future. CERN IT is running a CEPH service in the context of OpenStack on a moderate scale of 1 PB replicated storage. Building a 100+PB storage system based on CEPH will require software and hardware tuning. It is of capital importance to demonstrate the feasibility and possibly iron out bottlenecks and blocking issues beforehand. The main idea behind this R&D is to leverage and contribute to existing building blocks in the CEPH storage stack and implement a few CERN specific requirements in a thin, customisable storage layer. A second research topic is the integration of ethernet enabled disks. This paper introduces various ongoing open source developments, their status and applicability.

Integrated Voltage—Current Monitoring and Control of Gas Metal Arc Weld Magnetic Ball-Jointed Open Source 3-D Printer

To provide process optimization of metal fabricating self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printers requires a low-cost sensor and data logger system to measure current (I) and voltage (V) of the gas metal arc welders (GMAW). This paper builds on previous open-source hardware development to provide a real-time measurement of welder I-V where the measuring circuit is connected to two analog inputs of the Arduino that is used to control the 3-D printer itself. Franklin firmware accessed through a web interface that is used to control the printer allows storing the measured values and downloading those stored readings to the user’s computer. To test this custom current and voltage monitoring device this study reports on its use on an upgraded all metal RepRap during the printing of aluminum alloy (ER1100, ER4043, ER4943, ER4047, and ER5356). The voltage and current data were analyzed on a per alloy basis and also layer-by-layer in order to evaluate the device’s efficacy as a monitoring device for 3-D printing and the results of the integrated design are discussed.

РОЗРОБКА ПЛАТФОРМИ СИСТЕМИ ПІДТРИМКИ ПРИЙНЯТТЯ РІШЕННЯ ДЛЯ МЕДИЧНОЇ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНОЇ СИСТЕМИ З ВІДКРИТИМ КОДОМ OPENEMR

<h3>Introduction</h3><p class="1415">An importance of Medical Information Systems (MIS) in medical practice and education is displayed. The wide usage of the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software is signed.</p><h3>Current state. The open source EMR-systems usage</h3><p class="1415">The importance and alternative approaches to the implementation of the MIS in the Ukraine healthcare system are discussed. The situation on the MIS development in Ukraine is presented. The benefits of the open-source MIS usage are shown.</p><p class="1415">Effectiveness of the Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) application in the medical decision making process are introduced. The CDSS capabilities in diagnostic of the pregnancy pathologies are considered.</p><h3>The CDSS platform development implementation</h3><p class="1415">The step-by-step results of the CDSS platform development as the plugin for the open-source MIS OpenEMR are presented.</p><p class="1415">The open-source MIS OpenEMR developer tools and software API are reviewed.</p><p class="1415">The information model of the CDSS database was proposed and developed. The Model-View-Controller (MVC) based approach to the CDSS architecture is proposed. The CDSS dialog subsystem implementation according to the MIS OpenEMR programming API is developed. The administrative module of the CDSS platform based on the Yii2 php-framework is created.</p><p class="1415">An approach to the decision making process which is based on the decision tree algorithm usage is proposed. An implementation of the given above approach as separate web-service based won the Google App Engine (GAE) capabilities is presented. The data exchanging formats and methods which OpenEMR CDSS module and DecissionTree GAE service interaction establish are developed.</p>

The effects of PLA color on material properties of 3-D printed components

As the number of prosumer printers has expanded rapidly, they now make up the majority of the 3-D printer market and of these printers those in the open-source lineage of the RepRap also have expanded to dominate. Although still primarily used for prototyping or hobbyist production of low-value products, the RepRap has the capacity to be used for high-value distributed manufacturing. A recent study found that RepRap printed parts printed in realistic environmental conditions can match and even out perform commercial 3-D printers using proprietary FDM in terms of tensile strength with the same polymers. However, tensile strengths of the large sample set of RepRap prints fluctuated. In order to explain that fluctuation and better inform designers on RepRap print properties this study determines the effect of color and processing temperature on material properties of Lulzbot TAZ deposited PLA in various colors. Five colors (white, black, blue, gray, and natural) of commercially available filament processed from 4043D PLA is tested for crystallinity with XRD, tensile strength following ASTM D638 and the microstructure is evaluated with environmental scanning electron microscope. Results are presented showing a strong relationship between tensile strength and percent crystallinity of a 3-D printed sample and a strong relationship between percent crystallinity and the extruder temperature. Conclusions are drawn about the effects of color and processing temperature on the material properties of 3-D printed PLA to promote the open-source development of RepRap 3-D printing.