How are Open Source Software Projects Organized and What Makes Them Successful? Katherine Stewart University of Maryland October 14, 2002 Infonomics Workshop, Brussels

Outline Research Questions Organization of OSS projects Antecedents to success Current Research Projects Software Complexity Longitudinal study Survey on social coordination/control Goals

Research Questions How are Open Source Software Projects Organized?  Applicable literatures Organizational Architectures (Carroll & Hannan, 2000) Social Movements (Morris, 2000) Voluntary organizations (Cress, McPherson, & Rotolo, 1997) Virtual teams/groups (DeSanctis & Monge, 1999)  Key Characteristics: Informal boundaries, volunteer labor, community culture, knowledge sharing, inexpensive communication, information-based output

Research Questions What leads to success in OSS projects? Success indicators– group output, software quality, usage, others? (DeLone & McLean, 1992) Social coordination/control mechanisms – communication, culture, trust Group size, domain

Current Research Projects Analysis of software complexity Longitudinal study of project success Social coordination mechanisms: survey of project administrators

Survey project - preliminary results Affective Trust Cognitive Trust Social Communication Task Communication Common Ideology Perceived Effectiveness CVS Support/ patches Group Efficacy Open Source Ideology 0.28*** *** 0.25** 0.27* 0.38** * 0.52*** * 0.41** * R R R R R R Controls: group size, development status

Goals Understanding of conditions required for success Applicability of OSS project organizational structure to other domains