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.

项目负责人将开发和测试团队、项目和用户因素对开源软件（OSS）开发成功的影响模型。我们将探讨成功的多维概念，包括发展和使用的角度。提出了以下一般主张：提高识别和承诺的团队因素吸引和保留开发人员的投入，并促进将投入成功地转化为产出；与开发者动机相一致的项目因素能够吸引开发者投入；促进协调和结合开发人员贡献的项目因素增加了将发展投入成功转化为产出的机会；项目因素作为提示软件的有用性和易用性，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影响用户的兴趣和影响；先前采用OSS的积极影响将增强用户对其他OSS产品的兴趣。这些命题被进一步发展，为可检验的假设提供基础。数据将通过以下几个来源收集：社区网站（SourceForge.net和Freshmeat.net）、项目主页、项目参与者调查、案例研究和用户调查。样本中的项目将在拟议的研究期间进行监测，以便可以分析项目间的横向影响和项目内的纵向影响。为了启动这一进程，该项目将整合和大大扩展先前为完善其理论模型和数据收集策略而进行的三项试点研究中收集的数据。PI希望通过提供对开发成功的影响的大样本调查，并通过引入在以前的工作中缺乏的关于成功的使用视角，这项工作将促进我们对OSS作为一种独特而重要的现象的认识和理解。使用大量新引入的项目样本，并随着时间的推移跟踪它们，本研究将通过解决主要研究大型、成功的OSS项目和/或将研究限制在公共可用数据（即SourceForge数据）的横断面分析所产生的局限性来补充先前的工作。这项研究结合了来自OSS网站的公开可用数据，以及调查数据和案例研究，以提供更丰富的成功图景。在单个研究中检查团队、项目和用户因素将允许交互影响和比较不同类型成功先决条件的相对重要性。该研究模型以新兴的OSS研究和相关的组织研究文献为基础，调查了OSS环境中独特的因素，以及从其他虚拟团队研究中得出的因素。这项研究不仅有助于我们对OSS的理解，而且有助于更广泛的研究文献，其中包括关于虚拟团队的信息系统（is）文献和is的采用和使用。更广泛的影响：开源软件代表了一种可能具有巨大社会效益的创新新手段。PI期望研究的结果将使组织能够有效地使用开源软件和开发方法，并将进一步帮助政策制定者确定促进创新的适当方法。PI将在学术界和工业界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，在她的试点研究中与PI合作的四名学生中有三名（她希望继续与她合作）是非裔美国人，这项研究可能会直接增加代表性不足的群体的参与。