Measuring open source software success

Open source software is gaining popularity and significance in recent years. Similarly, testability is a residual software property which the developers and users no longer ignore. This is because if the testability of software is high, the test effort and development cost decrease proportionally. This is the case because test effort is highly affected by testability. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between test effort and success of the open source software by employing source codes and easily accessible parameters from the repository. Moreover, the proposed methods are empirically examined by analyzing 17 open source software projects. According to the empirical results, a meaningful positive correlation is obtained between test effort and success. This implies the importance of preparing test scenarios and codes to obtain successful open source software project.

Open source software represents a new paradigm of software development based on a subjacent community. It is widely accepted in the literature the layered structure of open source communities, being the core group the most active contributors usually located at the center of the community. The tasks of this group include not only an intense activity in terms of contributions but also to promote participation among the rest of the community members. In this paper, the general role of this group is analyzed by modeling communities as Social Networks and applying Social Network Analysis techniques. Findings related their brokerage activity with open source software success.

Social network analysis of open source software: A review and categorisation

Open Source vs. Proprietary Software: Competition and Compatibility

Since the needs for academic management are always changing, the creation of academic information systems must focus on user benefits and satisfaction in order to gauge how successful academic management systems are. This research uses the Delone and McLean IS Success Model which is known as one of the system success models, so the aims to ascertain the effects of system, information, and service quality, as well as usage rate, on benefits and user satisfaction SIAKAD system. Respondents were determined using the Slovin formula and taken using proportionate stratified random sampling techniques as many as 100 people. Descriptive analysis was carried out to explain respondents' perceptions and evaluate the success of the system using Three levels of communication were used to measure the success of the system: technical, semantic, and effectiveness levels. The Delone and Mclean IS Success Model's variable relationships were investigated using SEM-PLS analysis. Hypothesis testing results indicate that User Satisfaction is significantly impacted by Information; System; and Service Quality, then Information Quality also significantly affects Usage; and Net Benefits are significantly impacted by User Usage and Satisfaction; however, neither System Quality nor Service Quality significantly affects Use or Use on User Satisfaction.

In this paper, we study oligopolistic competition between closed and open source softwares. By intersecting existing economic contributions on open source, we propose a two stage game with perfect information and product di¤eretiation in which producers firstly set softwares quality, then they determine prices (constrained at zero for open source programs). In doing this, we explicitly model lock-in e¤ects, network externality components of software quality as well as knowledge accumulation in software use and implementation. With respect to a monopolistic benchmark case, we argue that in duopoly a pro- prietary sofware producer facing an open source software will reduce its selling price whether: (i) its network of users is larger than open sources one and its consumers are largely experienced on its program, (ii) it has a small network of un-skilled consumers. In opposition, after open source softwares emergence, proprietary software price does augment if proprietary software users form a large, but poorly skilled network. Fur- thermore, we show that, in all above cases, proprietary software quality increases because of the existence of a open source alternative to a previouisly monopolistic program. Finally, by modeling knowledge accumulation processes through di¤erence equations, we show that the ratio between closed and open source programs opportunity costs of software learning and deployment plays a crucial role in shaping market outcomes. Until an open source software remains too complex and technical for unskilled or time-scarse users, a shared market solution in which both softwares are adopted is predicted. In contrast, if opportunity costs in learning and understanding open source programs are remarkably low, or at least equal to opportunity costs of a closed source software, then a open source dominance outcome (i.e. all software are open ones) phases out.

In recent years, software development models have undergone changes. In order to meet user needs and functional changes, open-source software continuously improves its software quality through successive releases. Due to the iterative development process of open-source software, open-source software testing also requires continuous learning to understand the changes in the software. Therefore, the fault detection process of open-source software involves a learning process. Additionally, the complexity and uncertainty of the open-source software development process also lead to stochastically introduced faults when troubleshooting in the open-source software debugging process. Considering the phenomenon of learning factors and the random introduction of faults during the testing process of open-source software, this paper proposes a reliability modeling method for open-source software that considers learning factors and the random introduction of faults. Least square estimation and maximal likelihood estimation are used to determine the model parameters. Four fault data sets from Apache open-source software projects are used to compare the model performances. Experimental results indicate that the proposed model is superior to other models. The proposed model can accurately predict the number of remaining faults in the open-source software and be used for actual open-source software reliability evaluation.

We empirically examine the relationship between software design modularity and software quality in open source software (OSS) development projects. Conventional wisdom suggests that degree of software modularity affects software quality. An analysis of 203 software releases in 46 OSS projects hosted on SourceForge.net lends support for a more complex relationship between software modularity and software quality than conventional wisdom suggests. We find that software modularity is associated with reduced software complexity, an increased number of static software bugs, and a mixed relationship with the percentage of bugs closed. We do not find empirical evidence supporting any relationship between modularity and other measures of customer satisfaction. In addition to empirically testing the relationship between modularity and quality, we introduce new measures of software modularity and software quality. Implications are developed for the theory of modularity and the practice of software development.

In this study, we estimate the effect of “online following,” a basic form of online social interaction, on members’ contributions in open source software (OSS) communities, using a unique longitudinal data set containing information on over 4 million OSS developers and their social interactions over 7 years. We find that obtaining new followers in the previous month has a significant positive effect on developers’ level of contribution in the current month. The effect carries over to the next month although the marginal effect decreases. We further find that the effect of new followers on their contribution level is much stronger for freelancers than those with company affiliation. In contrast to the previous literature that posited the existence of non-monetary incentives for developers who contribute to the OSS communities, our result suggests the existence of incentives that are tied to future monetary rewards for developers on these platforms. Our findings have important implications for the OSS platforms as well as the OSS community. OSS platform designers may consult our results to learn about the social features that affect members’ contribution. We also encourage OSS community to use the “following” feature more prominently on OSS platforms to incentivize higher contribution levels to the projects.

The number and impact of open source projects is increasing. We examine the impact of competition from open source software (OSS) on proprietary software providers by analyzing three cases: (i) proprietary software as a monopoly, (ii) mixed duopoly competition between proprietary software provider and OSS, and (i) duopoly competition between two proprietary software providers. We use an analytical model to capture two important features of OSS: (i) its zero licensing price and (ii) its lower usability in comparison with proprietary software. Prior studies have shown that competition from OSS causes the proprietary software provider to produce software that is both lower quality and lower priced than software offered by a monopolist. In contrast, our paper shows that these results hold under certain conditions but are not always true. We find that competition from OSS can induce the proprietary software provider to increase its software quality and price relative to those of the monopolist when the proprietary software provider's cost of enhancing software quality is moderate. Surprisingly, we also find that competition from OSS can lead to a reduction in social welfare. Whereas prior research has shown this result in the context of network effects, we show that this can occur in the absence of network effects and offer a novel explanation.

Is Open Source About Innovation? How Interactions with the Open Source Community Impact on the Innovative Performances of Entrepreneurial Ventures

This paper outlines a critical, textual approach for the analysis of the relationship between different actors in information technology (IT) production, and further concretizes the approach in the analysis of the role of users in the open source software (OSS) development literature. Central concepts of the approach are outlined. The role of users is conceptualized as reader involvement aiming to contribute to the configuration of the reader (to how users and the parameters for their work practices are defined in OSS texts). Afterwards, OSS literature addressing reader involvement is critically reviewed. In OSS context, the OSS writers as readers configure the reader and other readers are assumed to be capable of and interested in commenting the texts. A lack of OSS research on non-technical reader involvement is identified. Furthermore, not only are the OSS readers configured, but so are OSS writers. In OSS context while writers may be empowered, this clearly does not apply to the non-technical OSS readers. Implication for research and practice are discussed.

Samsung R&D Institute Brazil (SRBR) is one of Samsung's research centers around the world. SRBR work is focused on research on software development areas. SRBR software development teams have worked in collaboration with Samsung headquarters (HQ), located at South Korea, and Brazilian outsourcing companies (SIDI Institute and other Brazilian partners). Considering the massive volume of software developed by SRBR and partners teams, there naturally has been an enormous use and contribution of open source software. The usage of open source software (OSS) by Samsung and its research centers follows a process to ensure that all use is compliant with OSS licenses. This experience report describes OSKB (Open Source Knowledge Base) tool, a distributed collaboration Web application fully integrated with a tracking issue system, currently used by SRBR teams involved with software development for avoiding duplicated work and improving knowledge sharing among SRBR internal and partners teams. The main reasons behind OSKB development were automating the first step of OSS licenses verification activity reducing duplicated work, serving as a knowledge base of OSS analysis, reducing the time spent in back office operations related with OSS usage and mitigating OSS usage compliance risks.

This issue continues the growing emphasis on contributions from Asia, with only one paper from Africa. In the first paper, ‘Website satisfaction dimensions: Factors between satisfaction and dissatisfaction’, Chorng-Shyong Ong and Shu-Chen Chang, of the National Taiwan University, report on a study to assess the influence of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment on users’ experience of satisfaction or dissatisfaction when using websites. The second paper also focuses on the use of online services. In ‘User acceptance of Internet banking in Indonesia: Initial trust formation’, Aries Susanto, Hwansoo Lee and Hangjung Zo, of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Andrew P. Ciganek, of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, report on a large-scale survey of prospective Internet banking service customers in Indonesia which aimed to assess the impact of trust, perceived security, and perceived privacy on consumers’ initial trust of Internet banking. The contribution to this issue from Africa, ‘HIV/ AIDS-related information needs of urban and rural residents of northwest Ethiopia: alerting the rural populace and meeting the progressive needs of the urban populace’, by Mesfin Awoke Bekalu and Steven Eggermont of the University of Leuven, reports on a study designed to assess the impacts of urbanity vs. rurality on HIV/AIDS-related information needs in northwest Ethiopia. The findings indicated that urban residents were more concerned about, and had greater information needs on HIV/ AIDS, than the rural populace. The two groups also had significantly different preferences for specific types of HIV/AIDS-related information. We return to Asia with the next paper, ‘Achieving horizontal integration of municipal e-government in China: assessment of managerial mechanisms’, by Bo Fan of Shanghai Jiaotong University. This reports on a study which aimed to analyze managerial determinants, identify key stakeholders, and redesign managerial mechanisms for the task of horizontal integration of Chinese municipal e-government. Data were collected from a nationwide survey administered in selected municipal cities in China. The research identified multiple managerial factors necessary for horizontal integration in e-government; these were: experience in general management, reforming authority, experience in projects, and legal regulation. The final paper in this issue again deals with users’ attitudes to an aspect of information technology. In ‘Acceptance of open source software amongst Thai users: an integrated model approach’, Veera Bhatiasevi of Mahidol University International College, and Donyaprueth Krairit of the Asian Institute of Technology, report on a survey of 1,005 open source software users in Thailand which led to the development of a comprehensive model that integrates individual, social, and software characteristics to measure the acceptance of open source software. The results illustrate that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, intention to use, output quality, compatibility, software functionality, and software maintainability have a positive relationship with open source software acceptance. Also in this issue, Archie Dick’s column on Education for librarianship and information studies: fit for purpose?, while Msafiri tries to ‘Catch the Wind’. A Commentary by Ian M. Johnson considers the question of ‘Development goals after 2015 – the role of information, books and libraries’, while we also include a brief summary of a recent SAGE report, ‘Library Value in the Developing World’, by Nell McCreadie, Group Marketing Manager, SAGE Publications Ltd. The full report is available free of charge at http://www.sagepublications.com/libraries/dw, and will also be published in IFLA Journal, Vol. 39, no. 4 (December 2013).

Mobile applications experience context changes during their execution, moreover their success depends on the user satisfaction that is strictly related to application quality. However, context changes may affect system quality and therefore user satisfaction, hence mobile applications may greatly benefit from context awareness that allows the application to adapt to context changes. In this paper we propose a context aware approach for mobile applications that targets both software quality and user satisfaction. In particular, we focus on service availability and develop a methodology that, leveraging on a novel reward formula that contains the notion of software availability and users feedback, determines the best application adaptation to be applied in a given context. We show the devised methodology on a motivating example.