Context Of Open Source Software Development Research Articles

Open Source Usability and User Experience

The purpose of this article is to highlight the challenges of user-centered and usability processes and methods in a open source software development context as well as to provide some answers for these challenges.

Participatory design in OSS development: interpretive case studies in company and community OSS development contexts

This article examines distributed participatory design in open source software (OSS) development. User participation is becoming a relevant topic of research in the OSS development context. Though it has not been examined much to date, the OSS development context has been argued to advocate a particular type of participatory design, which can now be scrutinised in its natural setting as it evolves. Two interpretive case studies on user participation in OSS development are included in this article. The first examines a traditional community OSS development project; the second concentrates on the company OSS development context, the case being a software development unit of a global corporation involved in OSS development. Through analysis of the cases, different forms of participatory design (PD), especially of distributed PD, are identified. Distributed PD is interpreted to include gaining an understanding of users' current practices, redesigning them together with users and gathering feedback from users related to the solutions. Different kinds of roles are available to users, as well as to for intermediaries ‘representing users’. Especially, the importance of online forum-based and intermediary-driven PD is emphasised in this article. Implications for PD and OSS research and practice are considered.

Discursive construction of ‘user innovations’ in the open source software development context

This paper analyzes the discursive construction of user innovations in open source software (OSS) development. A review of the literature on user innovation is conducted, after which a refined conceptualization of this topic encompassing the Foucauldian and social shaping of technology traditions is offered. A discourse analytic approach is used to examine both the process and the outcome of user innovation. Through an interpretive case study, a set of discourses evolving within an OSS project's website is identified, each implying particular subject positions for the OSS users and OSS developers in software production and consumption processes. Particular kinds of subject positions for the OSS users are adopted, negotiated, opposed as well as created by the OSS users in the analyzed discourses. The developers are in an authoritative position as the decision-makers and the ones realizing the innovations, but the users are allowed important positions of co-creators and co-cultivators. User innovation is characterized as a continuous, evolving co-creation process of the modes of subjectivity offered for the OSS users. This kind of process could be experimented with in other kinds of development contexts. On the other hand, this study questions many assumptions related to user innovation that are taken for granted, highlighting the difficulty of simply and straightforwardly enhancing it in any context. Finally, implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Discourses on User Participation

Users should participate in information technology (IT) artifact development, but it has proven to be challenging. This applies also in the open source software (OSS) development. This chapter critically examines discursive construction of user participation in academic literatures and in practice, in IT artifact development. First three academic discourses constructing user participation are discussed. Then the discursive construction of user participation is explored in OSS development literature. Afterwards, results from several empirical, interpretive case studies are outlined. Some of them have been carried out in the IT artifact product development organizations, others in the OSS development context. Clear similarities can be identified in the discourses constructing user participation in these divergent IT artifact development contexts. The academic discourses on user participation clearly also legitimate certain ways of constructing user participation in practice. The OSS development literature bears resemblance mainly with the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) discourse on user participation. Therefore, it is argued that especially the HCI community should carefully reflect on what kinds of discourses on user participation it advocates and deems as legitimate.

“Constructing the users” in open source software development

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report findings from an interpretive case study on user participation in the open source software (OSS) development context.Design/methodology/approachThrough an empirical, interpretive case study and a literature review utilising the metaphor of text in the analysis, this paper provides a refined conceptualisation of user participation in OSS development.FindingsThe paper reveals that different kinds of meanings have been attached to users and to their participation. User participation is both direct and indirect in the OSS development context. Some user groups actively take part in OSS development, while others are merely represented in it. Different kinds of intermediaries “representing the users” are identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is based on one case study on a small but active OSS project with an interest in users. Other kinds of OSS projects should be analysed. The analysis was focused on a discussion forum, but users can take part in OSS development by other means as well. Paths for future work should include the gathering of more varied empirical data.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that users can provide feedback to the development through discussion forums in the distributed environment, but there is a need to support the users in doing so and the developers in analysing the data. The importance of different kinds of intermediaries “representing the users” is highlighted.Originality/valueThe paper provides thorough empirical insights and a refined conceptualisation of user participation addressing the currently weakly empirically explored OSS development context.

Stability and Efficiency of Communication Networks in Open Source Software Development

Open source software (OSS) development teams use informal communication to coordinate their work towards common goals. According to software engineering folklore, the architecture and the organization of the final product depend on the communication patterns of the contributors. Unlike in a formal organization, the communication network structures in an OSS project evolve unrestricted and unplanned. Little is known about the stability and efficiency of the communication structures that would evolve in OSS projects. In this paper, we use the connections model of the social networks theory by incorporating the salient features of OSS development to study the communications structures that might emerge in OSS projects. We characterize the stable and efficient structures. We find that for a given scenario there may exist several stable structures which are inefficient. We also find that there does not always exist a stable structure that is efficient. This can be explained by the fact that the stability of the structure is dependent on individual's maximization of self utility whereas the efficiency of the structure is dependent on maximization of group utility. In general, tension exists between stable and efficient structures because the players act in their self-interest rather than the group-interest. We discuss the results of the model in the context of OSS development. We also provide numerical simulation to illustrate the tension between stable and efficient networks. We further discuss implications of our results and provide directions for future research.