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，并参与了数字生活的方方面面。然而，大多数开放源码软件项目是作为“慈善机构”运作的，对其社区或社会没有正式的责任。幸运的是，越来越多的著名开放源码软件项目正在自愿从创始人所有制过渡到民主社区所有制。通过了解这些过渡如何进行，以及它们成功的频率，关键的OSS项目在应对动态的政策环境和不断变化的社区需求时将面临更少的风险。通过应对这些挑战，该团队可以捕获负责的开放源码软件设计的体制背景，并开发将软件项目过渡到负责治理的通用工具。为了充分发挥开放源码软件生态系统服务的社会效益，并提高其对社区成员和其他利益相关者的问责性，我们将举办研讨会，并发布如何将开放源码软件项目过渡到社区治理的指南。第一个是使用数据科学来探索OSS社区为自己定义的问责制度，以及它们如何与代码和贡献者网络共同发展。第二个是利用案例研究来深入了解治理转型过程的范围。 第三个是帮助开放源码软件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）政策文本的计算表示的进步，（2）将治理动态理论扩展到不连续的治理过渡（即，该奖项反映了NSF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.