A framework for creating hybrid‐open source software communities

Abstract

The open source software (OSS) model is a fundamentally new and revolutionary way to develop software. The success of the OSS model is also setting the stage for a structural change in the software industry; it is beginning to transform software industry from manufacturing to a service industry. Despite the success of the OSS model, for-profit organizations are having difficulty building a business model around the open source paradigm. Whereas there are some isolated empirical studies, little rigorous research has been done on how traditional organizations can implement and benefit from OSS practices. This research explores how organizations can foster an environment similar to OSS to manage their software development efforts to reap its numerous advantages. Drawing on organizational theory, we develop a framework that guides the creation and management of a hybrid-OSS community within an organization. We discuss the implications of this framework and suggest areas for future research.

Insiders and outsiders: paid contributors and the dynamics of cooperation in community led F/OS projects

“…The approach offers an intuitive way of understanding F/OS development (since F/OS communities are essentially built around the practice of developing software) and has been adopted within the context of other investigations of F/OS [16][17][18]. In the context of this paper it is argued that F/OS communities do not constitute a homogenous community of practice consisting only of experienced and new (peripheral) developers, but form constellations of practices [13].…”

Understanding the Role of Core Developers in Open Source Development

“…Compared with the proprietary software development, open source developers have distinctive organizational structure, development process, and culture (Sharma et al, 2002). In proprietary software development process, there is only one development entity, being the software developers who are paid to work for the company.…”

“…Compared with the traditional proprietary software development, OSS is a radically new paradigm (Moody, 2001;Raymond, 2005;Sharma, Sugumaran, & Rajagopalan, 2002). With OSS, software source code is freely available for anyone to view, download, modify and redistribute as long as it is under the same open source license (see http://www.opensource.org ).…”

Socio-Technical Interaction Networks in Free/Open Source Software Development Processes

“…An example of such a variant appears in Exhibit 2. Finally, when OSSD projects seek to engage or receive corporate sponsorship, and the possible co-mingling of corporate/proprietary intellectual property, then some variation of a non-GPL open source license is employed, as a way to signal a "business friendly" OSSD project, and thus to encourage participation by developers who want to work in such a business friendly and career enhancing project [Hann 2002, Sharma 2002.…”

“…Developing F/OSS systems is a community and project team building process that must be institutionalized within a community [Sharma 2002, Smith 1999, Preece 2000 for its software informalisms (artifacts) and tools to flourish. Downloading, installing, and using F/OSS systems acquired from other F/OSS Web sites is also part of a community building process [Kim 2000].…”