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Open Source Systems: Integrating Communities

12th IFIP WG 2.13 International Conference, OSS 2016, Gothenburg, Sweden, May 30 - June 2, 2016, Proceedings

herausgegeben von: Kevin Crowston, Imed Hammouda, Björn Lundell, Gregorio Robles, Jonas Gamalielsson, Juho Lindman

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International IFIP WG 2.13 International Conference on Open Source Systems, OSS 2016, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in May/June 2016. The 13 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics related to free, libre, and open source software, including: organizational aspects of communities; organizational adoption; participation of women; software maintenance and evolution; open standards and open data; collaboration; hybrid communities; code reviews; and certification.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Full Papers

Frontmatter

The Role of Local Open Source Communities in the Development of Open Source Projects

Abstract

This paper investigates the position of local open source communities (LOSCs) in the development of open source projects (OSPs). We have conducted an empirical study to examine the role of LOSCs, their way of working, and the benefits/challenges they experience compared to the overall global community. The qualitative investigation consisted of ten semi-structured interviews with members within different LOSCs. The results confirm the importance of LOSCs and the pivotal role they play in the development of OSPs. In many cases, they act as the middleman between individual members and the project’s global community. However, LOSCs have their own kinds of challenges.

Sinan Abdulwahhab, Yazen Alabady, Yacoub Sattar, Imed Hammouda

A Study of Concurrency Bugs in an Open Source Software

Abstract

Concurrent programming puts demands on software debugging and testing, as concurrent software may exhibit problems not present in sequential software, e.g., deadlocks and race conditions. In aiming to increase efficiency and effectiveness of debugging and bug-fixing for concurrent software, a deep understanding of concurrency bugs, their frequency and fixing-times would be helpful. Similarly, to design effective tools and techniques for testing and debugging concurrent software understanding the differences between non-concurrency and concurrency bugs in real-word software would be useful. This paper presents an empirical study focusing on understanding the differences and similarities between concurrency bugs and other bugs, as well as the differences among various concurrency bug types in terms of their severity and their fixing time. Our basis is a comprehensive analysis of bug reports covering several generations of an open source software system. The analysis involves a total of 4872 bug reports from the last decade, including 221 reports related to concurrency bugs. We found that concurrency bugs are different from other bugs in terms of their fixing time and their severity. Our findings shed light on concurrency bugs and could thereby influence future design and development of concurrent software, their debugging and testing, as well as related tools.

Sara Abbaspour Asadollah, Daniel Sundmark, Sigrid Eldh, Hans Hansson, Eduard Paul Enoiu

A Bayesian Belief Network for Modeling Open Source Software Maintenance Productivity

Abstract

Maintenance is one of the most effort consuming activities in the software development lifecycle. Efficient maintenance within short release cycles depends highly on the underlying source code structure, in the sense that complex modules are more difficult to maintain. In this paper we attempt to unveil and discuss relationships between maintenance productivity, the structural quality of the source code and process metrics like the type of a release and the number of downloads. To achieve this goal, we developed a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) involving several maintainability predictors and three managerial indices for maintenance (i.e., duration, production, and productivity) on 20 open source software projects. The results suggest that maintenance duration depends on inheritance, coupling, and process metrics. On the other hand maintenance production and productivity depend mostly on code quality metrics.

Stamatia Bibi, Apostolos Ampatzoglou, Ioannis Stamelos

Core-Periphery Communication and the Success of Free/Libre Open Source Software Projects

Abstract

We examine the relationship between communications by core and peripheral members and Free/Libre Open Source Software project success. The study uses data from 74 projects in the Apache Software Foundation Incubator. We conceptualize project success in terms of success building a community, as assessed by graduation from the Incubator. We compare successful and unsuccessful projects on volume of communication by core (committer) and peripheral community members and on use of inclusive pronouns as an indication of efforts to create intimacy among team members. An innovation of the paper is that use of inclusive pronouns is measured using natural language processing techniques. We find that core and peripheral members differ in their volume of contribution and in their use of inclusive pronouns, and that volume of communication is related to project success.

Kevin Crowston, Ivan Shamshurin

On Involvement in Open Standards: How Do Organisations Contribute to W3C Standards Through Editorship?

Abstract

Over the years, a number of open standards have been developed and implemented in software for addressing a number of challenges, such as lock-in, interoperability and longevity of software systems and associated digital artefacts. Understanding organisational involvement and collaboration in standardisation is important for informing any future policy and organisational decisions concerning involvement in standardisation. The overarching goal of the study is to establish how organisations contribute to open standards development through editorship. Specifically, the focus is on open standards development in W3C. Through an analysis of editorship for all W3C recommendations we contribute novel findings concerning organisational involvement and collaboration, and highlight contributions from different types of organisations and countries for headquarter of each organisation. We make three principal contributions. First, we establish an overall characterisation of organisational involvement in W3C standardisation. Second, we report on organisational involvement in W3C standardisation over time. Third, we establish organisational collaboration in W3C standardisation through social network analysis.

Jonas Gamalielsson, Björn Lundell

Combining FOSS and Kanban: An Action Research

Abstract

Even though Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Agile Software Development (ASD) have been recognized as important ways to develop software, share some similarities, and have many success stories, there is a lack of research regarding the comprehensive integration of both practices. This study attempts to consolidate these methods and to answer if FOSS and ASD can be combined successfully. Action Reseach (AR) is conducted with one sub-team of a large FOSS project. We performed two action research cycles based on the Kanban method. This paper has two main contributions; first, it describes a real world situation, where Kanban is applied to a FOSS project, and second, it suggests two new Kanban practices. These two methods are targeted specifically at FOSS projects and their characteristics.

Annemarie Harzl

Who Cares About My Feature Request?

Abstract

Previous studies on issue tracking systems for open source software (OSS) focused mainly on requests for bug fixes. However, requests to add a new feature or an improvement to an OSS project are often also made in an issue tracking system. These inquiries are particularly important because they determine the further development of the software. This study examines if there is any difference between requests of the IBM developer community and other sources in terms of the likelihood of successful implementation. Our study consists of a case study of the issue tracking system BugZilla in the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE). Our hypothesis, which was that feature requests from outsiders have less chances of being implemented, than feature requests from IBM developers, was confirmed.

Lukas Heppler, Remo Eckert, Matthias Stuermer

The Impact of a Low Level of Agreement Among Reviewers in a Code Review Process

Abstract

Software code review systems are commonly used in software development. In these systems, many patches are submitted to improve the quality. To verify the quality, voting is commonly used by contributors; however, there still exists a major problem, namely, that reviewers do not always simply reach a broad agreement. In our previous study, we found that consensus is not usually reached, implying that an individual reviewer’s final decision usually differs from that of the majority of the other reviewers. In this study, we further investigate the reasons why such situations often occur, and provide suggestions for better handling of these problems. Our analysis of the Qt and OpenStack project datasets allow us to suggest that a patch owner should select more appropriate reviewers who often agree with others’ decisions.

Toshiki Hirao, Akinori Ihara, Yuki Ueda, Passakorn Phannachitta, Ken-ichi Matsumoto

Certification of Open Source Software – A Scoping Review

Abstract

Open source software (OSS) systems are being used for increasingly critical functions in modern societies, e.g., in health care, finance, government, defense, and other safety and security sensitive sectors. There is an increasing interest in software certification as a means to assure quality and dependability of such systems. However, the development processes and organizational structures of OSS projects can be substantially different from traditional closed-source projects. The distributed, “bazaar-style” approach to software development in OSS systems is often perceived incompatible with certification. This paper presents the results of a scoping review on certification in OSS systems in order to identify and categorize key issues and provide a comprehensive overview of the current evidence on this topic.

Eirini Kalliamvakou, Jens Weber, Alessia Knauss

Classifying Organizational Adoption of Open Source Software: A Proposal

Abstract

Staged adoption models are a common feature of information systems (IS) adoption literature, yet these are rarely used in open source software (OSS) adoption studies. In this paper, a staged model for classifying the organizational adoption of OSS is proposed, based upon a critical review of existing staged adoption models and factors identified from OSS adoption literature. Innovations in the proposed model include: defined transition pathways between stages, additional stages and a decomposition of cessation of use into four distinct pathways.

Stephen Murphy, Sharon Cox

In-between Open and Closed - Drawing the Fine Line in Hybrid Communities

Abstract

Today, the community driven development model extends into a variety of new, often web based collaborations. Among these are hybrid open source development set ups in which various online tools are used to facilitate cooperation between virtual teams of commercial and voluntary stakeholders. As yet, how these relationships form and evolve is not understood extensively. This article presents a longitudinal case study of a smartphone startup that founded its early product development strategy on reliance on feedback from its customers through a web based question and answer forum. With this, the company managed to extend values typical for open source communities to support development of its proprietary software. Our main findings include that the challenge in similar settings lies in striking the right balance between the open and the proprietary – while overt openness may risk the competitive advantage of a company, leaving too much behind closed boundaries can create unnecessary friction in the relationship.

Hanna Mäenpää, Terhi Kilamo, Tomi Männistö

Herding Cats: A Case Study of Release Management in an Open Collaboration Ecosystem

Abstract

Release management in large-scale software development projects requires significant communication and coordination. It is particularly challenging in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) ecosystems, in which hundreds of loosely connected developers and their projects need to be coordinated to release software to a schedule. To better understand this process and its challenges, we analyzed over two and half years of communication in the GNOME ecosystem and studied developers’ interactions. We cataloged communication channels, categorized high level communication and coordination activities in one of them, and triangulated our results by interviewing developers. We found that a release schedule, influence instead of direct control, and diversity are factors that impact positively the release process in the GNOME ecosystem. Our results can help organizations build better large-scale teams and show that research focused on individual projects might miss important parts of the picture.

Germán Poo-Caamaño, Leif Singer, Eric Knauss, Daniel M. German

Women in Free/Libre/Open Source Software: The Situation in the 2010s

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in the IT sector. But the situation in FLOSS (free, libre, open source software) development is really extreme in this respect: past publications and studies show a female participation of around 2 % to 5 % and have shed some light into this problem. In this paper, we give an update the state of knowledge to the current situation of gender in FLOSS, by analyzing the results of surveying more than 2,000 contributors to FLOSS projects in 2013, of which more than 200 were women. Our findings confirm that women enter the FLOSS community later than men, do primarily other tasks than coding, participate less if they have children, and have slightly different reasons to enter (and to stay in) the development communities they join. However, we also find evidence that women are joining FLOSS projects in higher numbers in recent years, and that the share of women devoting few hours per week to FLOSS and full-time dedication is higher than for men. All in all, comparing our results with the ones from the 2000s, the context of participation of women in FLOSS has not changed much.

Gregorio Robles, Laura Arjona Reina, Jesús M. González-Barahona, Santiago Dueñas Domínguez

Short Papers and Tool Demonstration

Frontmatter

An Open Continuous Deployment Infrastructure for a Self-driving Vehicle Ecosystem

Abstract

Self-driving vehicles are an ongoing research and engineering topic even though first automotive OEMs started to deploy such features to their premium vehicles. Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg are operating and maintaining a vehicle laboratory comprising 1/10 scaled cars, a Volvo XC90, and a Volvo FH truck to conduct studies with automated driving. This laboratory is used both from researchers from different disciplines and in education. The experimental software for all these platforms is powered by the same software environment for different hardware architectures. Therefore, maintaining and deploying new features and bugfixes to the users of this laboratory in a fast way needs to be organized in a reproducible yet easily maintainable manner. This paper outlines our open approach to encapsulate our build, test, and deployment process using VirtualBox, Docker, and Jenkins.

Christian Berger

Towards Open Source/Data in the Context of Higher Education: Pragmatic Case Studies Deployed in Romania

Abstract

The open source ideology is unfortunately not so popular in Romania. This subject represents, to this day, an untackled problem especially in various local educational areas. The paper describes an interesting initiative taken this year by the Faculty of Computer Science, University of Iaşi, Romania to change the collective opinion by progressively pushing the new generations of students through a binding process with the ideas involved in the open source philosophy. Three ongoing initiatives addressing this problem are detailed, including the results we have obtained so far through them, and also the steps that are planned to be taken soon on the matter.

Alexandru Coman, Alexandru Cîtea, Sabin C. Buraga

BugTracking: A Tool to Assist in the Identification of Bug Reports

Abstract

Issue tracking systems are used, in most software projects, but in particular in almost all free open source software, to record many different kinds of issues: bug reports, feature requests, maintenance tickets and even design discussions. Identifying which of those issues are bug reports is not a trivial task. When researchers want to conduct studies on the bug reports, managed by a software development project, first of all they need to perform this identification.

The job for researchers here is very different from the bug triaging that researchers do. In the latter case, people with a considerate experience in the project make a decision based on the information available at that time (maybe just a short comment by some user), asking, if needed, for more details. In the former case, researchers usually have not that experience in the project, but they have at their use all the information produced, until the moment the issue was closed. This may include not only all comments and actions on the issue tracking system, but for example, discussions about a fix in the code review system, or the final fixing patch in the source code management system. Having all that information conveyed to the researchers, in an easy, flexible and quick way, accelerates and makes their decision process much more reliable. It simplifies large scale manual analysis of issues (in hundreds or thousands), helping researchers to ensure that they are really working with what they intend to work: bug reports.

This paper presents a tool designed to solve exactly the problem of providing the researchers with all the relevant information needed to decide whether an issue corresponds to a bug report or not. The tool uses information extracted automatically from the projects repositories. It offers a web-based interface which allows collaboration, traceability and transparency of the identification of bug reports. All this makes the process easier, faster, and more reliable.

Gema Rodríguez-Pérez, Jesús M. Gonzalez-Barahona, Gregorio Robles, Dorealda Dalipaj, Nelson Sekitoleko

Backmatter

Titel: Open Source Systems: Integrating Communities
herausgegeben von: Kevin Crowston
Imed Hammouda
Björn Lundell
Gregorio Robles
Jonas Gamalielsson
Juho Lindman
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-39225-7
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39224-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39225-7