Abstract. Some free software and open source projects have been extremely successful in the past. The success of a project is often related to the number of developers it can attract: a larger community of developers (the `bazaar') identifies and corrects more software defects and adds more features via a peer-review process. In this paper two free software projects (Wine and Arla) are empirically explored in order to characterize their software lifecycle, development processes and communities. Both the projects show a phase where the number of active developers and the actual work performed on the system is constant, or does not grow: we argued that this phase corresponds to the one termed 'cathedral ' in the literature. One of the two projects (Wine) shows also a second phase: a sudden growing amount of developers corresponds to a similar growing output produced: we termed this as the `bazaar ' phase, and we also argued that this phase was not achieved for the other system. A further analysis revealed that the transition between `cathedral' and `bazaar ' was a phase by itself in Wine, achieved by creating a growing amount of new modules, which attracted new developers. 1Introduction Prominent free software (or open source software, OSS) projects such as Linux [32], Apache [27] and FreeBSD [18] have been extremely successful. Anecdotal evidence has been used in the past to characterize successful OSS projects: users/developers acting as "more eyeballs " in the correction of bugs, developers implementing new features independently, skillful project managers dealing with a mostly flat organization, and the resulting coordination costs [28]. Previous studies have provided empirical evidence on the process of successful OSS projects: the definition of various types of developers has been discussed for the Mozilla and the Apache projects, justifying different levels of effort [27], and claiming that the first type (core developers) contribute to the success of a system.

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

Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) have been developing in some countries for over 10 years but still suffer from having a relatively small installed base. Most SDIs will soon converge around a service-oriented-architecture (SOA) using IT standards promulgated primarily by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and ISO Technical Committee 211. There are very few examples of these types of architected SDIs in action, and as a result little detailed information exists on suitable governance models. This paper discusses the governance issues that are posed by SOA-based SDIs, particularly those issues surrounding standards and services management, with reference to an Australian marine case study and the general literature. A generalised governance framework is then postulated using an idealised use case model which is applicable for “bottom-up, ” community-based initiatives. This model incorporates guiding principles and motivational and self-regulation instruments that are characteristically found in successful open source development activities. It is argued that harnessing an open development model, using a voluntary workforce, could rapidly increase the size of the SDI installed base and importantly defray infrastructure build costs.

The FAMEtool: an automated supporting tool for assessing