The focus of this paper is to review what is known about free and open source software development (FOSSD) work practices, development processes, project and community dynamics, and other socio-technical relationships. It focuses on exploring how FOSS is developed and evolved based on an extensive review of a set of empirical studies of FOSSD projects that articulate different levels of analysis. These characterize what has been analyzed in FOSSD studies across levels that examine (i) why individuals participate; (ii) resources and capabilities supporting development activities; (iii) how cooperation, coordination, and control are realized in projects; (iv) alliance formation and inter-project social networking; (v) FOSS as a multi-project software ecosystem, and (vi) FOSS as a social movement. Next, there is a discussion of limitations and constraints in the FOSSD studies so far. Last, attention shifts to identifying emerging opportunities for future FOSSD studies that can give rise to the development of new software engineering tools or techniques, as well as to new empirical studies of software development.

the state of the literature. We develop a framework for organizing the literature based on the input-mediatoroutput-input (IMOI) model from the small groups literature. We present a quantitative summary of articles selected for the review and then discuss findings of this literature categorized into issues pertaining to inputs (e.g., member characteristics, technology use and project characteristics), processes (software development and social processes), emergent states (e.g., trust and task related states) and outputs (e.g. team performance, FLOSS implementation and project evolution). Based on this review, we suggest topics for future research, as well as identifying methodological and theoretical issues for future inquiry in this area, including issues relating to sampling and the need for more longitudinal studies.

Libre (free / open source) software is a good example of global software development. Thousands of projects, in a wide range of domains which involve hundreds of thousands of developers and contributors from all around the world. Some large (both in size and developer community) libre software projects have shown evidence of producing code with complete functionality and fast evolution (with linear or superlinear growth), while maintaining low defect density. Many companies are exploring how to benefit from this situation, considering several approaches related to libre software development. For instance, some of them have hired full-time developers, focusing their work on some libre software projects they consider strategic. However, before joining the core development team of the project, these hired developers have to follow a process of software comprehension, and get used to the rules and communication mechanisms used in the project. We were interested in the differences between this case and that of volunteer developers working in the same project, Therefore, we studied the duration and basic characteristics of this joining process for the developers of GNOME (a well known, large, libre software project). In our analysis, we have found two groups with clearly different joining patterns. Moreover, we have related those patterns to the different behaviors of volunteer and hired developers: volunteers tend to follow a step-by-step joining process, while hired developers usually experience a “sudden ” integration. Some reasons for this different behavior are also discussed.

This study seeks to identify and characterize the array of social and technical resources needed to support the development of open source software supporting E-Commerce (EC) or E-Business (EB) capabilities. This entails a case study within a virtual organization that has undertaken an organizational initiative to develop, deploy, and support free/open source software systems for EC or EB services, like those supporting Enterprise Resource Planning. The objective this study is to identify and characterize the resource-based software product development capabilities that lie at the center of the initiative, rather than the software itself, or the effectiveness of its operation in a business enterprise. By learning what these resources are, and how they are arrayed into product development capabilities, we can provide the knowledge needed to understand what resources are required to realize the potential of Free EC and EB software applications. In addition, the resource-based view draws attentions to those resources and capabilities that provide potential competitive advantages and disadvantages of the organization in focus. Introduction and Background

Abstract. Process discovery has been shown to be a challenging problem offering limited results. This paper describes a new approach to process discovery that examines the Internet information spaces of open source software development projects. In particular, we examine challenges, strengths, weaknesses and findings when seeking to discover, model, and reenact processes associated with large, global OSSD projects like NetBeans.org. The longer-term goal of this approach is to determine the requirements and design of more fully integrated process discovery and modeling mechanisms that can be applied to Web-based, open source software development projects. 1

Abstract: We seek to identify work practices that make Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams effective. Particularly important to team effectiveness is decision making. In this paper, we report on an inductive qualitative analysis of 360 decision episodes of six FLOSS development teams. Our analysis revealed diversity in decision-making practices that seem to be related to differences in overall team characteristics and effectiveness. Key words: Decision making practices; free/libre open source software development teams;

Free and open source software has had a major impact on the computer industry since the late 1990s and has changed the way software is perceived, developed and deployed in many areas. Free and open source software, or FOSS, is typically developed in a collaborative fashion and the majority of contributors are volunteers. Even though this collaborative form of develop-ment has produced a significant body of software, the development process is often described as unstructured and unorganized. This dissertation studies the FOSS phenomenon from a quality perspective and investigates where im-provements to the development process are possible. In particular, the focus is on release management since this is concerned with the delivery of a high quality product to end-users. This research has identified considerable interest amongst the FOSS commu-nity in a novel release management strategy, time based releases. In contrast to traditional development which is feature-driven, time based releases use time rather than features as the criterion for the creation of a new release. Releases

Open source software (OSS) development is a communityoriented, networkcentric approach to building complex software systems. OSS projects are typically organized as edge organizations lacking an explicit management regime to control and coordinate decentralized project work. However, a growing number of OSS projects are developing, delivering, and supporting largescale software systems, displacing proprietary software alternatives. Recent empirical studies of OSS projects reveal that OSS developers often selforganize into organizational forms we characterize as evolving sociotechnical interaction networks (STINs). STINs emerge in ways that effectively control semiautonomous OSS developers and coordinate project activities, producing reliable and adaptive software systems. In this paper, we examine how practices and processes enable and govern OSS projects when coalesced and configured as contingent, sociotechnical interaction networks. We draw on data sources and results from two ongoing case studies of governance activities and elements in a large OSS project.

Recently emerging methodologies for producing educational resources resembling those used in the libre (free, open source) software will radically change the way educational content is developed and used on the web. To fully implement the libre idea, both educational practitioners and students should become actively involved in the creation and distribution of open resources. New architectures are needed to effectively support this process. The paper describes a novel, truly open platform to support the creation of free, collaboratively constructed educational content on the web. The platform has been developed within the Edukalibre project. The Edukalibre system provides easy access to core technologies composed of a control version system combined with conversion tools to produce several convenient formats for each document. Its modular architecture offers many different interfaces to the users. The Edukalibre platform is distributed as libre software.

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