Collaborative Research: DASS: Accountable Open Source Infrastructure

合作研究：DASS：负责任的开源基础设施

• 批准号: 2317169
• 负责人: Narayanasamy Ramasubbu
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2317169&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; DASS; Accountable; Open

Corporations, governments, and society as a whole have developed an extraordinary reliance on open-source libraries and frameworks, which comprise a sort of “open-source digital infrastructure.” As such, the utility and security of a great many important applications depends on maintaining this infrastructure to a high standard. However, open-source licenses typically completely eschew any form of accountability, providing no warranties of any kind. Moreover, maintainers of open-source projects are typically free to walk away at any time, rather than expected to comply with external demands. This research will investigate to what extent maintainers of open-source software are accountable to different types of users, as well as when and how this accountability emerges and varies in response to evolving user needs or regulatory moves. The results of this research will highlight the scenarios under which the current open-source governance mechanisms contribute to or fail to address the external accountability that is sought for durable infrastructure, as well as any trade-offs involved. Ultimately, this research will help inform how a range of effective interventions can be designed to move open-source projects and ecosystems in the direction of greater accountability, resulting in more sustainable open-source infrastructure. This project will shed light on accountability in open-source ecosystems through an orchestrated set of mixed-methods empirical studies across two research thrusts. First, qualitative interviews and a survey will reveal how maintainers and users think about accountability, the extent to which it becomes embedded in project and ecosystem culture, and the alignment of expectations of the two sides, across a dozen ecosystems and a spectrum of arrangements that involve commercial firms, government institutions, and research labs with open-source communities. Second, additional interviews will reveal how successful open-source communities mount effective collective responses to specific episodes that starkly challenge accountability (e.g., the introduction of regulation), and statistical and econometric models will estimate how the effects of such shocks on project outcomes vary across governance models and other project context factors. This project is expected to yield a framework, with different contingencies and trade-offs grounded in empirical data, that explains the emergence (or lack thereof) of a system of accountability in open-source communities. More generally, this work will bring together perspectives of accountability from the software engineering, information systems, and management research communities that are interested in open-source ecosystems, stimulating new research in these disciplines grounded in current challenges in open-source practice.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.

整个公司，政府和社会对开源库和框架非常依赖，其中包括一种“开源数字基础架构”。因此，许多重要的应用程序的实用性和安全性取决于将此基础设施保持在高标准中。但是，开源许可通常完全避免任何形式的问责制，没有任何形式的保证。此外，开源项目的维护者通常可以随时自由走开，而不是预计会遵守外部需求。这项研究将调查开源软件的维护者在多大程度上对不同类型的用户负责，以及何时以及如何出现该问责制以及响应不断发展的用户需求或监管移动。这项研究的结果将突出目前的开源治理机制有助于或未能解决耐用基础设施以及任何涉及的任何权衡的情况。最终，这项研究将有助于告知如何设计一系列有效的干预措施，以将开源项目和生态系统移动到更大的问责制，从而导致更可持续的开源基础架构。该项目将通过在两个研究推力的一组精心策划的混合方法经验研究中阐明开源生态系统中的问责制。首先，定性访谈和调查将揭示维护者和用户如何思考问责制，其嵌入到项目和生态系统文化中的程度，以及双方的期望的一致性，在十二个生态系统中以及涉及商业公司，政府机构，政府机构以及开放式社区的一系列安排。其次，额外的访谈将揭示成功的开源社区如何有效地对挑战问责制（例如，监管的引入）的特定情节进行有效的集体响应，并且统计和经济模型将估计此类冲击对项目结果对跨治理模型和其他项目背景因素的影响如何变化。预计该项目将产生一个框架，并以经验数据为基础的不同意外事件和权衡取舍，这解释了开源社区中责任制系统的出现（或缺乏）。更一般而言，这项工作将从对开源生态系统感兴趣的软件工程，信息系统和管理研究社区中汇总出问责制的观点，刺激在开放源代码实践中当前挑战的这些学科中的新研究。该奖项奖反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过对基金会的智力进行了评估，并通过评估了基金会的范围。