The rapid acceleration of corporate engagement with open source projects is drawing out new ways for CSCW researchers to consider the dynamics of these projects. Research must now consider the complex ecosystems within which open source projects are situated, including issues of for-profit motivations, brokering foundations, and corporate collaboration. Localized project considerations cannot reveal broader workings of an open source ecosystem, yet much empirical work is constrained to a local context. In response, we present eight observations from our eight-year engaged field study about the changing nature of open source projects. We ground these observations through 24 research questions that serve as primers to spark research ideas in this new reality of open source projects. This paper contributes to CSCW in social and crowd computing by delivering a rich and fresh look at corporately-engaged open source projects with a call for renewed focus and research into newly emergent areas of interest. CCS Concepts: • General and reference → Surveys and overviews; • Information systems → Open source software; • Human-centered computing → Field studies; Open source software; Computer supported cooperative work; • Software and its engineering → Open source model; • Social and professional topics → Socio-technical systems;
Open source projects are most often evaluated by potential contributors and consumers using metrics that describe a level of activity within the project because those measurements are available. The principle question in the minds of most evaluators, however, is "How healthy and sustainable is this project in the context of its competitors or dependent projects"? Limitations of current analysis methods focused on trace data alone are discussed, and reviewed in depth. Next, our methods for conducting engaged field research, developing metrics standards as part of a corporate communal partnership, and molding tools that evolve through a reflexive discourse with practitioners using standard metrics is framed as an approach to consider for examining open source software health and sustainability. Researchers, in particular, need tools for increasing the feasibility of comprehensive, multi-project health and sustainability studies, and connecting trace data with human experience. From a practice perspective, these same conditions are increasing the difficulty organizations and individuals engaged in open source face when trying to understand the status, condition, and health of a particular project, the project's ecosystem or ecosystems emerging around their specific project context. This study examines the work of a Linux Foundation working group, CHAOSS (Community Health Analytics Open Source Software) during the first four years of the formation. The paper concludes with examples of CHAOSS metrics operationalized in partnership with corporate collaborators in a manner that emphasizes comparison, transparency, trajectory and visualization as components for discursive, evolutionary understanding of open source software health.
We explore the Community Health Analytics for Open Source Software project and how it plays an integral role in the automation of key measures to make the state of open source readily observable.
The early phases of the product design process are crucial to the success of design outcomes. While information utilized during idea development has tremendous potential to impact the final design, there is a lack of understanding about the types of information utilized in industry, making it challenging to develop and teach methodologies that support the design of competitive products. As a first step in understanding this process, this study focuses on developing a framework of Information Archetypes utilized by designers in industry. This was accomplished through in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews with large software engineering companies. The results reveal two archetypes of information utilized by decision-makers within these companies during the development of new products and services. The findings of this study allow for future research that investigates the role of information during the product design process.
Across disciplines such as software engineering to architectural design, it is well acknowledged that the different types of information employed during the design process impacts the potential of the final design. However, a lack of understanding exists about how designers utilize and navigate the abundance of complex information types, making it difficult to develop design methodologies that support the development of competitive products and services. As part of an ongoing effort to develop an Information Archetypes Framework, this study focuses on identifying the emergence of information dimensions and archetypes during decision making. This was accomplished through a detailed analysis of interviews with designers who engage in open source work as part of their employment. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence of the types of information used during the design process, validates existing information archetypes, and identifies new archetypes that emerge from co-occurring information dimensions.
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