Governing open source software through coordination processes

Abstract

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The Third Design Space: A postcolonial perspective on corporate engagement with open source software communities

“…Within these settings, design becomes a collaborative and open process, not always following a linear problem-solution approach. New forms of design are evident in the creation of governance models (Shaikh & Henfridsson, 2017), community structures (West & O'Mahony, 2008) and software (Gurbani et al, 2010;Gurbani, Garvert, & Herbsleb, 2006). Corporate-communal engagement enables us to reconsider what design means as it is made transparent and actionable for all.…”

Building Governance Capability in Online Communities: A Social Network Perspective

“…With characteristics such as high turnover, fluid boundaries, sharing of common resources and expertise-based control, these new forms of organising appear to be "governed significantly differently than conventional hierarchical designs" [24:142]. Their shared goals range from software development [27,37] and healthcare support [11] to serving as sources of innovation for organisations looking outside their boundaries for creative ideas [12]. They enable and enhance networking among a distributed set of participants, where barriers to entering and exiting the community are relatively low.…”

“…Recently, Shaikh and Henfridsson [37], argue that the nature of governance varies across online communities, and it offers the authoritative framework for coordinating activities in open source communities. They also argue that multiple traces of authority may co-exist in its evolution.…”

“…As it is stated above, though several studies have enriched our understanding of the evolving governance of online social production in mature online communities [3,30,33,35,37], much less is known about how governance mechanisms evolve before, during and after the existence of these communities. There are many implications for such limitations of the existing literature.…”

“…We have limited knowledge as to whether social production in other domains, such as distributed interaction across social networks prior to the existence of an online community (Twitter and Gitter), face governance challenges other than what we know from OSS communities [24]. Thus, while considerable progress has been made in understanding governance in the context of a mature online community, the focus of the extant literature has largely focused on its changing nature over time and how its nature varies across open source communities [37]. We lack satisfactory answers on how a vast and distributed interaction between members of an online community (i.e.…”