CAREER: A Study of Open Source Software Project Success

职业：开源软件项目成功研究

• 批准号: 0347376
• 负责人: Katherine Stewart
• 金额: $ 49.87万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-02-15 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0347376&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Study; Open; Source; Software

The PI will develop and test a model of the influences of team, project, and user factors on success in open source software (OSS) development. A multi-dimensional conceptualization of success will be explored, including both a development and a usage perspective. The following general propositions are developed: Team factors that enhance identification and commitment attract and retain developer input and facilitate the successful conversion of that input into output; Project factors that are aligned with developer motivations attract developer input; Project factors that facilitate the coordination and combination of developer contributions increase the successful conversion of development input into output; Project factors act as cues to usefulness and ease of use of the software, thereby influencing user interest and adoption; The alignment of project factors with user factors influences user interest and impact; Positive impact of prior OSS adoption will enhance user interest in other OSS products. These propositions are further developed to provide the basis for testable hypotheses. Data will be collected on a large sample of open source projects using several sources: community websites (SourceForge.net and Freshmeat.net), project homepages, surveys of project participants, and case studies and surveys of users. Projects in the sample will be monitored over the proposed research period, so that both cross-sectional between-projects effects and longitudinal within-project effects can be analyzed. To start the process, data collected in three pilot studies previously conducted by the PI to refine her theoretical model and data collection strategies will be integrated and significantly expanded.The PI expects this work will advance our knowledge and understanding of OSS as a unique and important phenomenon by providing a large sample investigation of influences on development success, and by introducing a usage perspective on success that has been lacking in prior work. Using a large sample of newly introduced projects and following them over time, this study will complement prior work by addressing limitations that have resulted from studying mainly large, successful OSS projects and/or limiting study to cross-sectional analysis of publicly available data (i.e., SourceForge data). This study combines both publicly available data from OSS websites as well as survey data and case studies, to provide a richer picture of success. Examining team, project, and user factors in a single study will allow for interaction effects and comparison of the relative importance of different kinds of success antecedents. The research model is grounded in emerging research on OSS and relevant organizational research literatures, investigating both factors unique in the OSS setting, as well as factors drawn from other studies of virtual teams. The research is expected to contribute not only to our understanding of OSS, but also to the wider research literatures from which the model is derived, including the information systems (IS) literatures on virtual teams and IS adoption and use. Broader Impacts: Open source software represents a new means of innovation that may have great societal benefits. The PI expects the results of the research will enable organizations to effectively use open source software and development approaches, and will further help policy makers to determine appropriate means for fostering innovation. The PI will widely disseminate the results of this research both in academia and industry. The project will directly promote learning through the participation of undergraduate and graduate students in the study activities; in particular, as three of the four students who worked with the PI on her pilot studies (and who she expect to continue working with her) are African Americans, the research may directly increase the participation of under-represented groups.

PI将开发和测试团队，项目和用户对开源软件成功（OSS）开发成功因素的影响模型。 将探索成功的多维概念化，包括开发和用法观点。 开发了以下一般命题：增强认同和承诺的团队因素吸引并保留了开发人员的投入，并促进了该输入转化为输出的成功；与开发人员动机保持一致的项目因素吸引了开发人员的意见；促进开发人员贡献的协调和组合的项目因素增加了开发输入转化为产出；项目因素充当有用性和易于使用软件的线索，从而影响用户的兴趣和采用；项目因素与用户因素的一致性会影响用户的兴趣和影响；先前采用的OSS采用的积极影响将增强对其他OSS产品的兴趣。 这些命题得到了进一步发展，以提供可检验的假设的基础。 数据将使用多个来源在开源项目的大量样本上收集：社区网站（SourceForge.net和FreshMeat.net），项目主页，项目参与者的调查以及用户的案例研究和调查。 样本中的项目将在拟议的研究期间进行监控，以便可以分析横截面周围的效应和纵向内部效应。 为了开始这一过程，PI先前进行的三项试验研究中收集的数据将被整合并大大扩展。PI期望这项工作将通过提供对开发成功的大量影响，并在缺乏以前的工作中提供大量的影响来提高我们对OSS的知识和对OSS的了解和理解。 使用大量新介绍的项目并随着时间的推移遵循这些项目，这项研究将通过解决主要研究大型，成功的OSS项目和/或限制研究以对公开可用数据（即SourceForge数据）进行横断面分析所产生的限制来补充先前的工作。 这项研究结合了来自OSS网站的公开数据，以及调查数据和案例研究，以提供更丰富的成功情况。 一项研究中检查团队，项目和用户因素将允许互动效应并比较不同类型的成功前提的相对重要性。 该研究模型基于对OSS和相关组织研究文献的新兴研究，研究了OSS环境中独特的两个因素，以及来自其他虚拟团队研究的因素。 这项研究不仅有助于我们对OSS的理解做出贡献，而且还为该模型得出的更广泛的研究文献做出了贡献，包括有关虚拟团队的信息系统（IS）文献，并且是采用和使用。 更广泛的影响：开源软件代表了一种可能具有巨大社会利益的新创新手段。 PI希望研究结果将使组织能够有效地使用开源软件和开发方法，并将进一步帮助制定者确定促进创新的适当手段。 PI将在学术界和行业中广泛传播这项研究的结果。 该项目将通过本科生和研究生参与学习活动直接促进学习；特别是，由于与PI一起进行试点研究的四名学生（并且她希望继续与她合作）是非洲裔美国人，因此该研究可能直接增加代表性不足的群体的参与。