Collaborative Research: DASS: Transitioning open-source software projects to accountable community governance

合作研究：DASS：将开源软件项目转变为负责任的社区治理

基本信息

批准号：
2217652
负责人：
Seth Frey
金额：
$ 47万
依托单位：
University of California-Davis
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-07-15 至 2024-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2217652&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research DASS Transitioning open

项目摘要

Open-source software (OSS) underlies critical infrastructure around the US, and has a hand in every aspect of digital life. However, most OSS projects are run as “benevolent dictatorships” with no formal accountability to their community or society. Fortunately, increasing numbers of prominent OSS projects are voluntarily transitioning out of founder-ownership into democratic community ownership. By understanding how these transitions proceed, and how often they succeed, critical OSS projects will face fewer risks as they navigate a dynamic policy landscape and shifting community needs. By addressing these challenges, this team can capture the institutional context of accountable OSS design, and develop general tools for transitioning software projects to accountable governance. To leverage the social benefit of serving the OSS ecosystem, and improve its accountability to community members and other stakeholders, we will host workshops and publish a guide on how to transition OSS projects to community governance.This research pursues three research questions. The first is using data science to explore the accountability systems that OSS communities define for themselves, and how they co-evolve with their code and contributor network. The second is using case studies to develop a deep understanding of the range of governance-transition processes. The third is engineering software for helping OSS projects design their transition to community accountability. The work is providing the following main innovations: (1) advances in the computational representation of policy texts, (2) an extension of theories of governance dynamics into discontinuous governance transitions (i.e., transitions to community governance), (3) an extension of community governance processes to the OSS context, and (4) theoretically-informed governance design tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

开源软件 (OSS) 是美国各地关键基础设施的基础，并参与数字生活的各个方面。然而，幸运的是，大多数 OSS 项目都是以“仁慈的独裁统治”的形式运行的，对社区或社会没有正式的责任。许多著名的 OSS 项目正在自愿从创始人所有权过渡到民主社区所有权，通过了解这些过渡如何进行以及它们成功的频率，关键 OSS 项目在应对动态政策环境和不断变化的社区需求时将面临更少的风险。通过解决这些挑战，该团队可以捕捉负责任的 OSS 设计的制度背景，并开发用于将软件项目过渡到负责任的治理的工具。为了利用服务 OSS 生态系统的社会效益，并提高其对社区成员和其他利益相关者的责任，我们将。举办研讨会并发布有关如何将 OSS 项目过渡到社区治理的指南。本研究探讨三个研究问题：第一个是利用数据科学探索 OSS 社区为自己定义的问责系统，以及它们如何与代码共同发展。第二个是利用案例研究。第三是帮助 OSS 项目设计向社区问责制过渡的工程软件。这项工作提供了以下主要创新：(1) 政策文本计算表示方面的进步。（2）将治理动态理论扩展到不连续的治理转型（即向社区治理的转型），（3）将社区治理流程扩展到 OSS 环境，以及（4）基于理论的治理设计工具。该奖项反映通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。