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

开源软件（OSS）是美国关键基础设施的基础，并在数字生活的方方面面发挥着作用。然而，大多数OSS项目以“仁慈的独裁”的方式运行，没有对社区或社会的正式责任。幸运的是，越来越多的杰出OSS项目正在自愿地从创始人所有权过渡到民主的社区所有权。通过理解这些转换是如何进行的，以及它们成功的频率，关键的OSS项目将面临更少的风险，因为它们在动态的政策环境和不断变化的社区需求中导航。通过处理这些挑战，该团队可以捕获负责任的OSS设计的制度背景，并开发用于将软件项目转换为负责任的治理的通用工具。为了利用服务OSS生态系统的社会效益，并改善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关于如何将OSS项目转变为社区治理的指南。本研究追求三个研究问题。第一个是使用数据科学来探索OSS社区为自己定义的责任系统，以及它们如何与代码和贡献者网络共同发展。第二种方法是使用案例研究来深入了解治理过渡过程的范围。第三种是用于帮助OSS项目设计其向社区责任过渡的工程软件。这项工作提供了以下主要创新：(1)政策文本的计算表示的进步，(2)将治理动力学理论扩展到不连续的治理过渡（即，向社区治理的过渡），(3)将社区治理过程扩展到OSS环境，以及(4)理论信息丰富的治理设计工具。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.