Source Community Research Articles

"Nip it in the Bud": Moderation Strategies in Open Source Software Projects and the Role of Bots

Much of our modern digital infrastructure relies critically upon open sourced software. The communities responsible for building this cyberinfrastructure require maintenance and moderation, which is often supported by volunteer efforts. Moderation, as a non-technical form of labor, is a necessary but often overlooked task that maintainers undertake to sustain the community around an OSS project. This study examines the various structures and norms that support community moderation, describes the strategies moderators use to mitigate conflicts, and assesses how bots can play a role in assisting these processes. We interviewed 14 practitioners to uncover existing moderation practices and ways that automation can provide assistance. Our main contributions include a characterization of moderated content in OSS projects, moderation techniques, as well as perceptions of and recommendations for improving the automation of moderation tasks. We hope that these findings will inform the implementation of more effective moderation practices in open source communities.

Anthropology, indigenous methodology, and the restatement of African laws: lessons from research collaborations in Kenya

A research collaboration at the National Museums of Kenya since 2005 has resulted in the publication of several books. The project’s focus is the participatory documentation of the indigenous knowledge systems of the Amîîrû communities of the Kenyan central highlands. A confluence of disciplines and perspectives creates a forum for knowledge sharing, dissemination, and creation. This study describes the development of this collaboration, along with the challenges that have been overcome, including a methodological controversy: a gap exists between an anti-essentialist ethnography with empirical case studies, in which I have long-standing anthropological confidence, and indigenous essentialism, the approach of providing a generalised description of a culture, favoured by authors from the source communities. This study evaluates the latter approach within the socio-cultural contexts of the Amîîrû community and a controversy over the (un)certainty of African customary laws. I distinguish between two essentialisms – indigenous and strategic – and argue that the former can provide a bridge to the legal essentialism that characterises the Restatement of African Law books. I argue that this framework can inform the collaborative task of revising what is already in place to ascertain African law. Further, the task requires bridging the generalised description and empirical case methods.

The role of traditional social determinants of health in referral patterns, timing of surgery, and Chiari Health Index for Pediatrics-determined quality of life in children with symptomatic Chiari type I malformation.

Understanding the impact of the social determinants of health on the utilization of healthcare resources is an important step in eliminating inequalities. The goal of this study was to determine the role of social determinants of health in referral patterns, timing of consultation/intervention, and quality of life in children with Chiari malformation type I (CM-I). A retrospective study was conducted of children aged 0 to 18 years who underwent surgical treatment for CM-I at a single pediatric facility from 2015 to 2019. The variables included demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, referral patterns, timing, and quality of life data based on the Chiari Health Index for Pediatrics (CHIP). The cohort consisted of 103 surgically treated CM-I patients. No differences were seen in race, sex, insurance, or household income when evaluating referral source (community, specialist, or emergency department) or when comparing patients with incidental versus symptomatic findings. In the evaluation of timing from initial evaluation to surgery, no statistical differences were seen between racial, sex, insurance status, or income groups. Children from households of lower median family income were significantly more likely to report pain at the time of consultation (pain group median [interquartile range] $46,660 [$41,004-$50,367] vs nonpain group $53,604 [$41,427-$59,828], p = 0.004). Those in the lower-income group also reported lower CHIP scores corresponding to increased symptomatology in the nonpain physical symptoms (p = 0.004) and psychosocial domains (p = 0.018). There was no evidence of a difference in referral patterns or a delay in time from clinic presentation to surgery based on the traditional social determinants of health categories. Children from households in the lower-income group were associated with increased severity of pain and nonpain symptoms.

An Empirical Study on GitHub Sponsor Mechanism

From May 2019, GitHub launched sponsor mechanism indicating that GitHub is moving towards deeper integration of open source development and economic support. It will bring more comprehensive and diversified support to the open source community. However, the number of developers profiting from the sponsor mechanism follows a long tail distribution. Our study found that only 31% of developers who started the sponsor mechanism received rewards, and 39.3% of them only received a reward of one dollar. Our work focuses on identifying what factors affect the availability of sponsorship for developers in open source community. We start by defining 45 features to characterize the developers in four dimensions i.e. Personality, Advertisement, Repository and Behavior. The results of statistical analysis indicate that most of the proposed features differ significantly between the ones who received rewards (short for MTs_Yes) from those that are not. After that, we build machine learning model based on the proposed features to predict MTs_Yes. Compared with the existing work, results show that our method outperforms baselines by 30% for AUC (Area Under the Curve). In addition, we investigated the relative contribution of features in detecting MTs_Yes and analyzed the important features by using an interpretable model SHAP. Finally, based on the experimental results, we put forward corresponding and practical suggestions for developers who want to receive rewards so as to make the community of open source projects develop more harmonious.

Analysis on the loss path and cooperative protection of global biodiversity based on input-output model

Biodiversity plays a vital role in human survival and development. In the context of economic globalization and increasingly serious global biodiversity loss, the division of global biodiversity responsibilities and cross-regional cooperative conservation are important parts of species conservation. In this paper, an environmentally expanded multi-regional input-output analysis model is used to measure biodiversity loss footprint (overall footprint, internal footprint and external footprint), which not only covers the interference within the region, but also traces the influence out of it. In addition, structural path analysis and social network analysis were used to identify the transmission process and divide the biodiversity protection communities in various countries. The results show that: (1) There are significant differences among countries in terms of biodiversity loss footprint. The top five countries in terms of overall biodiversity loss footprint are Indonesia, China, the United States, Mexico and Brazil, but they have different impact modes on biodiversity; (2) While most of the footprint of biodiversity loss occurs within the region, more than a quarter of the footprint is due to global production chains outside the region. The study concluded that through the global production chain, species will eventually be influenced by the United States, Japan, India and China; (3) Among economic sectors, agriculture has the largest direct biodiversity footprint. Food & Beverages sector has the largest indirect biodiversity footprint; (4) Eight biodiversity protection communities have been formed around the world, including source community and mixed community of biodiversity protection, each four. Among them, the source community is represented by Indonesia, India, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand in South and Southeast Asia, while the mixed community is mainly composed of China, Japan, Cameroon and Vietnam in East Asia and South Africa. In order to protect biodiversity effectively, different strategies are proposed for different types of communities.

Prevalent fingerprint of marine macroalgae in arctic surface sediments

Macroalgal forests export much of their production, partly supporting food webs and carbon stocks beyond their habitat, but evidence of their contribution in sediment carbon stocks is poor. We test the hypothesis that macroalgae contribute to carbon stocks in arctic marine sediments. We used environmental DNA (eDNA) fingerprinting on a large-scale set of surface sediment samples from Greenland and Svalbard. We evaluated eDNA results by comparing with traditional survey and tracer methods. The eDNA-based survey identified macroalgae in 94 % of the sediment samples covering shallow nearshore areas to 1460 m depth and 350 km offshore, with highest sequence abundance nearshore and with dominance of brown macroalgae. Overall, the eDNA results reflected the potential source communities of macroalgae and eelgrass assessed by traditional surveys, with the most abundant orders being common among different methods. A stable isotope analysis showed a considerable contribution from macroalgae in sediments although with high uncertainty, highlighting eDNA as a great improvement and supplement for documenting macroalgae as a contributor to sediment carbon stocks. Conclusively, we provide evidence for a prevalent contribution of macroalgal forests in arctic surface sediments, nearshore as well as offshore, identifying brown algae as main contributors.

‘Decolonising’ Tropical Collections: Cultural Material from Papua New Guinea in Museums

Museums are western institutions that house the remnants of colonisation. They are fraught institutions in which cultural heritage issues arise due to the differences in western and indigenous societies. Most tropical collections were acquired during colonisation through unjust means by government administrators, missionaries, and dealers. In more recent times the ‘decolonisation’ of museums has begun, with developing nations and source communities demanding the repatriation and restitution of their cultural material from museums. This signifies political redress and self-determination from the effects of colonisation on former colonised nations and those that are still experiencing colonial occupation. This paper focuses on the collection and removal of cultural material from Papua New Guinea (PNG) during the colonial era. The paper discusses views among the Papua New Guinean diaspora in Australia on museums and PNG collections, and argues that cultural heritage issues must be addressed before the work of decolonisation can begin. Museums that house Papua New Guinean collections must follow the cultural protocols of the relevant Papua New Guinean source communities. Decolonisation will require an overhaul of the western museum structure and principles, and Papua New Guinean vision, values and voices must be at the forefront of this work.

Growing an open source community

Since the emergence of free software in the 1980s, the belief that software should be free has been quite widely held. During this period, the software developers took the leading role. As the 1990s began, there was a notable increase in the number of general users of open source software. Furthermore, developers and distro developers (who acted as both licensors and licensees, as well as users and developers) began to take a more active role in driving the direction of open source development. This period marked the emergence of the open source era, characterized by a greater convenience for distro developers. However, in the 2010s, the importance of platforms increased and previous control on licensing diminished. In other words, the history of free software and open source has been the history of how the parties holding the business initiative have been changing at each period.

Coastal rocky reef fish monitoring in the context of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Environmental DNA metabarcoding complements underwater visual census

Efficient biodiversity monitoring programs are essential to assess the ecological status of marine ecosystems. In the context of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MFSD), coastal rocky reef fish assemblages are most often surveyed using underwater visual census (UVC). While UVC is well-suited to monitor conspicuous fish, it underestimates hidden, vagrant and/or elusive fishes. Hence, complementary methods are needed to survey the whole fish assemblage. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is increasingly used in this context. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of eDNA metabarcoding collected from water to provide sound and complementary diversity data to UVC in support of the MFSD. Both methods were used to examine coastal rocky reef fish assemblages in one bay of Brittany (France), along an inshore-offshore gradient and during two seasons. eDNA metabarcoding was carried out following different water sampling strategies: small water volumes (2L) from stationary sampling at the surface and bottom and large water volume (30L) filtered at the surface while moving in close vicinity of the sampling site. A total of 93 (including 57 species) and 33 (including 27 species) taxa were detected with eDNA metabarcoding and UVC, respectively. Eleven species were only recorded by UVC, a result explained for nine of them by a lack of taxonomic resolution of the markers used (12S and 16S) and/or the unavailability of reference sequences. eDNA metabarcoding allows to recover species expected to be present, such as demersal rocky specialist fishes, at a similar species richness level than UVC (14 species for UVC and 12 species for eDNA). It however also unveiled other taxa (pelagic, bentho-pelagic and others demersal fishes) inhabiting the bay and rarely reported through UVC (18 species for UVC and 45 species for eDNA). Despite these differences in species identified by UVC vs. eDNA, both survey methods were consistent in characterizing spatio-temporal variabilities of fish assemblages, highlighting strong site fidelity of eDNA to the source communities. In a well-mixed water column, the eDNA signal was very homogeneous, allowing the use of the cost-effective small water volume eDNA sampling method. eDNA metabarcoding is thus particularly promising to study coastal rocky reef assemblages, and when coupled with UVC, it improves monitoring surveys.

Colonization of diatoms in and on porcine bone substrate and considerations of diatom ecology for forensic science.

The presence of diatom algae in bone marrow has been used as forensic evidence of drowning for several decades; however, these studies are based on known or suspected recent drowning events. This study addresses the potential for diatoms to enter the bone marrow of skeletal remains, that is, de-fleshed long bones post-mortem. In laboratory and field experiments, bones were either inflicted with two access points by a cut and acid pitting or left intact. The bones were submerged in water for at least 1 week and up to 3 months. Samples of the bone surface and marrow were inspected for diatoms. The analysis considered the time required for diatoms to enter marrow and whether genus characteristics like size or mobility affect entry. The presence of an access point influenced diatom entry in that bones without an introduced access point had zero to one diatom present in the marrow, whereas a bone with an access point had >150 diatoms present in the marrow. The results of both laboratory and field phases suggest that diatoms will reliably colonize bone in as quickly as 1 week, establishing and maintaining communities for at least 3 months. However, the bone surface assemblages differ from the source community. Bone marrow displayed even more restrictive access to diatom colonization, resulting in communities dominated by small raphid diatoms. Based on these findings, we suggest some caveats on the use of diatoms as trace evidence in forensic science with recommendations for future avenues of research.

“We do not appreciate being experimented on”: Developer and researcher views on the ethics of experiments on open-source projects

A tenet of open source software development is to accept contributions from users–developers (typically after appropriate vetting). But should this also include interventions done as part of research on open source development? Following an incident in which buggy code was submitted to the Linux kernel to see whether it would be caught, we conduct a survey among open source developers and empirical software engineering researchers to see what behaviors they think are acceptable. This covers two main issues: the use of publicly accessible information, and conducting active experimentation. The survey had 224 respondents. The results indicate that open-source developers are largely open to research, provided it is done transparently. In other words, many would agree to experiments on open-source projects if the subjects were notified and provided informed consent, and in special cases also if only the project leaders agree. While researchers generally hold similar opinions, they sometimes fail to appreciate certain nuances that are important to developers. Examples include observing license restrictions on publishing open-source code and safeguarding the code. Conversely, researchers seem to be more concerned than developers about privacy issues. Based on these results, it is recommended that open source repositories and projects address use for research in their access guidelines, and that researchers take care to ask permission also when not formally required to do so. We note too that the open source community wants to be heard, so professional societies and IRBs should consult with them when formulating ethics codes.

Gender Diversity on GitHub Issue Tracking: What's the Difference?

This work analyzes female participation in communication on GitHub’s Issue Tracking, based on thematic relevance of posted comments according to the developer’s gender relative to other metrics, such as reputation, participation time on the platform, and number of reported issues. Data from 5 open source communities and 5 communities dedicated to women was analyzed. The results indicate that, on average, the relevance of comments made by women is similar to that of men. However, the study confirms other findings in literature that highlight low levels of female representativeness and participation in projects, with just 22% of comments posted by women and 16% of issues reported by them.

Cybersecurity Risks Unique to Open Source and What Communities Are Doing to Reduce Them

This article delineates four categories of risk unique to open source projects and communities. We also discuss the communities actively seeking to mitigate these risk areas and suggest areas to elevate cybersecurity risk in open source.

From Bits to Atoms: Open Source Hardware at CERN

Although considered a relatively recent phenomenon of the past decade, open source hardware (OSH) is already influencing commercial hardware development. However, a common belief is that the greater economic cost and complexity of hybrid digital objects (i.e., digital objects with both hardware and software) precludes their development with open source methods traditionally used for software. We study a sophisticated OSH named White Rabbit initiated at CERN and developed through a vibrant and heterogenous open source community. Our findings show that the assumption that hardware and software require fundamentally distinctive development and production modes should be replaced with a more nuanced differentiation characterized by three main attributes describing an object’s composition: embodiment, modularity, and granularity. Taken together, these three attributes determine how a hybrid object is developed throughout its evolution in an open source community. Our research offers several contributions. First, we provide a more nuanced view of the consequences of the material embodiment of hardware. Once considered a simple deterrent to open source development, we describe how economic cost is subordinate to more influential aspects of an object’s physical layers: as the open source community modifies the object to accommodate the operating requirements of diverse physical instantiations, such modifications can be incorporated in the logical design covered by the open source license. Additionally, we show how embodiment, modularity, and granularity progress through the object’s evolution and how this maturation subsequently affects development modes. We trace the implications of our findings for hybrids and digital object conceptualizations in IS research, open source development and, more broadly, normative implications for OSH in scientific and commercial computing.

Sociocultural engagement in a colorblind racism framework moderates perceptions of cultural appropriation

Cultural appropriation refers to an action whereby an individual makes use of, imitates, or takes possession of cultural products of an outgroup or source community. Compared to Black Americans, many White Americans do not differentiate between high (i.e., White) and low (i.e., Black) status actors when making judgments of cultural appropriation (Mosley & Biernat, 2021). The goal of the current research is to assess why some individuals exhibit a lack of recognition of structural and historical racism when making judgments of cultural appropriation. To answer this question, we draw on theoretical work on colorblind racism, a framework of racial ideologies that emphasize that group differences should be ignored, and that people should be treated as individuals (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). Three experiments investigate the colorblind - racism hypothesis: perceivers who are highly invested in a colorblind racism ideology —assessed along three dimensions including racial group identification, historical knowledge of racism, and endorsement of assimilationist ideologies—will see equal levels of appropriation in the actions of White and Black perpetrators. In contrast, perceivers low in a colorblind ideology will see White (versus Black) actors as more culturally appropriative. We see for evidence for this hypothesis among White (Studies 1–2) and Black (Study 3) perceivers. These findings suggest that endorsement in a colorblind ideology can facilitate ignorance of power differences between groups when perceiving cultural appropriation.

The influence of project initiators’ person-to-person followership on project popularity in open source communities: The role of reach and importance

Person-to-person (P2P) followership is an important aspect of major open source software (OSS) development platforms. In this age of social media platforms, P2P followership has significantly shaped the way users engage in OSS development by facilitating the establishment of connections among OSS users. Despite the prevalence of P2P followership, less is known about the impact of OSS project initiators’ P2P followership nodes on their project popularity. This is a particularly important gap considering the low rate of OSS project success. We posit that OSS project initiators derive information and influence benefits from the quantity and connectivity of their P2P followership nodes, explaining the popularity of the projects initiated. We determine the connectivity of OSS project initiators’ P2P followership nodes based on the nodes’ reach and importance. To test the hypotheses, we use a large panel dataset collected over 24 months from GitHub. The findings indicate that the quantity of OSS project initiators’ P2P followership nodes including followers and followees has a positive effect on their project popularity. Moreover, such an effect is mostly dependent on the connectivity of the OSS project initiators’ P2P followership nodes in such a way that highly connected P2P followership nodes do not impact influence benefits but they increase information benefits. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement By Christina F. Kreps, New York:Routledge, 2020

Museum AnthropologyEarly View BOOK REVIEW Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement By Christina F. Kreps, New York:Routledge, 2020 Scarlett Engle, Corresponding Author Scarlett Engle [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-1791-9147 University of Colorado Boulder Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author Scarlett Engle, Corresponding Author Scarlett Engle caitrin.eng[email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-1791-9147 University of Colorado Boulder Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author First published: 03 May 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/muan.12273Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. REFERENCES Ames, Michael. 1992. Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes: the Anthropology of Museums. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Brown, Alison, and Laura Peers. 2013. “ The Blackfoot Shirts Project: ‘Our Ancestors Have Come to Visit.’” In The International Handbooks of Museum Studies, edited by Sharon Macdonald and Helen Rees Leahy, 1– 21. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Karp, Ivan, Corinne Kratz, Lynn Szwaja, and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto. 2006. Museum Frictions: Public Cultures/Global Transformations. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Kreps, Christina F. 2020. Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement. New York: Routledge, 2020. Krmpotich, Cara, and Laura Peers. 2014. This Is Our Life: Haida Material Heritage and Changing Museum. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Lonetree, Amy. 2013. Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Marsh, Diana. 2019. Extinct Monsters to Deep Time: Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian's Fossil Halls. Oxford: Berghahn Books. Morphy, Howard. 2019. Museums, Infinity and the Culture of Protocols: Ethnographic Collections and Source Communities. London: Routledge. Phillips, Ruth B. 2011. Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. Shannon, Jennifer A. 2014. Our Lives: Collaboration, Native Voice, and the Making of the National Museum of the American Indian. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press. Sleeper-Smith, Susan. 2009. Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue ReferencesRelatedInformation

Re-telling the story of Selk’nam ancestors

Museums are places characterised by collecting objects, displaying them for public education and also subjecting their collections to research. Yet knowledge can not only be created by using the collection for research. The history of a collection can also be reconstructed, albeit mostly in a fragmentary way. This is important when there is evidence that the collection was acquired in a colonial context, when the collection contains human remains and more so if these were taken from Indigenous peoples. Reconstructing the history of a collection can assist source communities in strengthening their identities and help to regain lost knowledge about their ancestors. This study analyses the provenance of fourteen crania and calvaria of the Selk’nam people from Tierra del Fuego, stored at the Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna. Additionally, the significance of these results and their meaning for today’s Selk’nam community Covadonga Ona will be contextualised within the framework of colonial history and museum systems.

Perceptions of Harm and Benefit Predict Judgments of Cultural Appropriation

What factors underlie judgments of cultural appropriation? In two studies, participants read 157 scenarios involving actors using cultural products or elements of racial/ethnic groups to which they did not belong. Participants evaluated scenarios on seven dimensions (perceived cultural appropriation, harm to the community from which the cultural object originated, racism, profit to actors, extent to which cultural objects represent a source of pride for source communities, benefits to actors, and celebration), while the type of cultural object and the out-group associated with the object being appropriated varied. Using both the scenario and the participant as the units of analysis, perceived cultural appropriation was most strongly associated with perceived greater harm to the source community. We discuss broader implications for integrating research on inequality and moral psychology. Findings also have translational implications for educators and activists interested in increasing awareness about cultural appropriation.

Interactions between formal structures and knowing communities: What does open source community involvement mean?

The purpose of this paper is to study the interactions between formal structures and knowing communities and to show how formal structures can support external communities. Indeed, the literature reveals the critical role of external knowing communities for innovation. This research is based on a sequential mixed-method research design with a multi study sequential approach. Three studies are performed to analyze the interactions between IT formal structures and open source communities. Study 1 and study 3 are quantitative and rely on the same sample of 157 IT business managers. Study 2 is qualitative and is based on four managers of three formal structures deeply rooted in open source communities. These studies show that the use of open source within the formal structure has an impact on the three forms in which formal structures involve themselves in external knowing communities: formalized, result-oriented and inter-connected involvement. They also reveal the difficulties and possibilities of inter-connected involvement and highlight the central role of formalization in community involvement.