UC Institute for Software Research

Open Source Software Development

UCI research in open source software development focuses on empirically-based studies of the processes, practices, and communities that develop open source software and related artifacts. Ethnographic and virtual enthnographic research methods are employed in the field studies of open source software development in communities that include those centered on Internet infrastructure, X-Ray astronomy and deep space imaging, networked computer games, and academic software design research.

Faculty

Mark Ackerman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Alfonso Fuggetta, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Les Gasser, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Robert Nideffer, UCI Studio Art and Informatics

John Noll, University of Limerick, Lero

Walt Scacchi, UCI ISR

Richard N. Taylor, UCI ISR

Tony Wasserman, Carnegie-Mellon University Silicon Valley

Collaborators

Margaret Elliott, UCI ISR

Projects

• Workshop on Future Research in Free/Open Source Software
• NSF IIS: Workshop to Establish National and International Research Infrastructures for Multidisciplinary Empirical Science of Free/Open Source Software, (award abstract)
• Naval Postgraduate School, Center for the Edge, Governance Issues in Open Source Software Development
• Naval Postgraduate School, Acquisition Research Program, Emerging Issues in the Acquisition of Open Source Software and Open Architectures.
• NSF IIS:  Discovering the Processes, Practices, Community Dynamics and Principles for Developing Open Source Software Systems (award abstract)
• NSF ITR: Understanding Open Software Communities, Processes and Practices: A Socio-Technical Approach (award abstract)
• NSF ITR: Collaborative Research: Organizational Dynamics of Software Problems, Bugs, Failures, and Repairs (award abstract)
  
  • Supplemental Research: Process Discovery, Modeling, and Reenactment
    
• NSF ITR: Collaborative Research: Research Directions for Continuous (Re)Design in Free/Open Source Software Systems (award abstract)
  
• NSF ITR: An Integrated Social and Technical Approach to Development of Distributed Inter-Organizational Applications (award abstract)

Other Awards and News

• 2006: ISR Director Richard N. Taylor and ISR Professors Thomas Alspaugh, Cristina Lopes received IBM's Eclipse Innovation Awards.
• 2005: ISR Professors André van der Hoek, Susan Elliott Sim, and David F. Redmiles received IBM Eclipse Innovation Awards.
• 2004: ISR Professors André van der Hoek and Susan Elliott Sim received IBM Eclipse Grants.

Selected Publications

• Towards a Global Research Infrastructure for Multidisciplinary Study of Free/Open Source Software Development, Les Gasser and Walt Scacchi, Proc. Fourth IFIP Intern. Conf. on Open Source Systems, Milan, IT September 2008.
• Governance in Open Source Software Development Projects: Towards a Model for Network-Centric Edge Organizations, Proc. 13th. Intern. Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, Bellevue, WA, July 2008.
• Emerging Issues in the Acquisition of Open Source Software within the U.S. Department of Defense, Walt Scacchi and Thomas Alspaugh, Proc. 5th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, Vol. 1, 230-244, NPS-AM-08-036, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA .
• Mobilization of Software Developers: The Free Software Movement, Margaret Elliott and Walt Scacchi, revised version in Information, Technology and People, 21(1), 4-33, 2008.
• Guest Editorial—Open Source Software for Engineering Education: Pedagogical Strategies that Leverage Open Source Tools, M. Lytras and Walt Scacchi, IEEE Trans. Education, 50(4), November 2007.
• Knowledge Work Artifacts: Kernel Cousins for Free/Open Source Software Development, Margaret Elliott, Mark Ackerman and Walt Scacchi, Proc. ACM Conf. Support Group Work (Group07), Sanibel Island, FL, 177-186, November 2007.
• Free/Open Source Software Development: Recent Research Results and Emerging Opportunities, Walt Scacchi, Proc. European Software Engineering Conference and ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 459-468, September 2007.
• Open Source Development, Adoption and Innovation, (edited by J. Feller, B. Fitzgerald, W. Scacchi, and A. Sillitti,), Springer, New York, June 2007.
• Guiding the Discovery of Open Source Software Processes with a Reference Model, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, Proc. Third IFIP International Conference on Open Source Systems, Limerick, IR, 11-13 June 2007, 265-270.
• Role Migration and Advancement Processes in OSSD Projects: A Comparative Case Study, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, in Proc. 29th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering, Minneapolis, MN, May 2007, 364-374.
• Open standards, open formats, and open source, Davide Cerri and Alfonso Fuggetta, Journal of Systems and Software accepted 26 January 2007. Available online 20 February 2007.
• Free/Open Source Software Development: Recent Research Results and Methods, Walt Scacchi, ISR working paper, August 2006.
• Open Standards, Open Formats, and Open Source,  Davide Cerri and Alfonso Fuggetta,  Working Paper, CEFRIEL, Politechnico di Milano, July 2006.
• Understanding the Development of Free E-Commerce/E-Business Software: A Resource-Based View, Walt Scacchi, in S.K. Sowe, I. Stamelos, and I. Samoladas (eds.), Emerging Free/Open Source Software Practices, IDEA group Publishing, Hershey, PA (to appear).
• Open Source Systems, (edited by E. Damiani, B. Fitzgerald, W. Scacchi, M. Scotto, and G. Succi), Springer, June 2006.
• Understanding Free/Open Source Software Development Processes, Walt Scacchi,  Joseph Feller, Brian Fitzgerald, Scott Hissam, and Karim Lakhani, Software Process--Improvement and Practice, 11(2), 95-105, March/April 2006.
• Experiences in Discovering, Modeling, and Reenacting Open Source Software Development Processes, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, in Mingshu Li, Barry Boehm, and Leon J. Osterweil (eds.), Unifying the Software Process Spectrum: Proc. Software Process Workshop, Beijing, China, May 2005, 442-469, Springer-Verlag, 2006.
• Modeling Recruitment and Role Migration Processes in OSSD Projects, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, Proc. 6^th Intern. Workshop on Software Process Simulation and Modeling, St. Louis, MO, May 2005.
• Emerging Patterns of Intersection and Segmentation when Computerization Movements Interact, Walt Scacchi, to appear in K.L. Kraemer and M. Elliott (eds.), Computerization Movements and Technology Diffusion: From Mainframes to Ubiquitous Computing, Information Today, Inc.
• Multi-Modal Modeling, Analysis and Validation of Open Source Software Requirements Processes, Walt Scacchi, Chris Jensen, John Noll, and Margaret Elliott, Intern. J. Internet Technology and Web Engineering, 1(3), 49-63, 2006. Previous version appeared in Proc. First Intern. Conf. Open Source Software, 1-8, Genova, Italy, July 2005. Received Best Paper Award.
• Raging Incrementalism: Harnessing Change with Open Source Software, John Georgas, Michael Gorlick, and Richard Taylor, Proc. Fifth Workshop Open Source Software Engineering, St. Louis, MO, May 2005.
• Socio-Technical Interaction Networks in Free/Open Source Software Development Processes,Walt Scacchi,in S.T. Acuña and N. Juristo (eds.), Software Process Modeling, 1-27, Springer Science+Business Media Inc., New York, 2005.
• Collaboration, Leadership, Control, and Conflict Negotiation in the NetBeans.org Software Development Community, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, Proc. 38^th. Hawaii Intern, Conf. Systems Science, Waikola Village, HI, January 2005.
• Process Modeling Across the Web Information Infrastructure, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, Software Process--Improvement and Practice, 10(3), 255-272, July-September 2005. Earlier version appears in Proc. 5^th. Intern. Workshop on Software Process Simulation and Modeling, Edinburgh, Scotland, May 2004.
• Opportunities and Challenges for Modeling and Simulating Free/Open Source Software Processes, Walt Scacchi, working paper, Institute for Software Research, October 2004, based on a Keynote Address presented at the Proc.  5^th. Intern. Workshop on Software Process Simulation and Modeling, Edinburgh, Scotland,May 2004.
• Software Engineering Methods and Technologies, A. Fuggetta and L. Sfardini, In D. Thayer ed., Software Engineering: Vol 2. The Supporting Processes, 3rd ed., Wiley, to appear.
• Open Source and Free Software: A New Model for The Software Development Process?, A. Fuggetta, Upgrade (The European Journal for the Informatics Professional), October 2004. Available at http://www.upgrade-cepis.org/
• Research Infrastructure for Empirical Science of FOSS, Les Gasser, Gabriel Ripoche, and Robert J. Sandusky, Proc. Workshop on Mining Software Repositories, Edinburgh, Scotland, May 2004.
• Data Mining for Software Process Discovery in Open Source Software Development Communities, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, Proc. Workshop on Mining Software Repositories, Edinburgh, Scotland, May 2004.
• Collaboration, Leadership, Control, and Conflict Negotiation in the NetBeans.org Community, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, Proc. 4th. Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, Edinburgh, Scotland, May 2004.
• Bug Report Networks: Varieties, Strategies, and Impacts in an OSS Development Community, Robert J. Sandusky, Les Gasser, and Gabriel Ripoche, Proc. Workshop on Mining Software Repositories, Edinburgh, Scotland, May 2004.
• Discovering, Modeling, and Reenacting Open Source Software Development Processes, Chris Jensen and Walt Scacchi, working paper, Institute for Software Research, March 2004.
• Mobilization of Software Developers: The Free Software Movement, (with Margaret Elliott), revised version to appear in Information, Technology and People.
• Socio-Technical Design, Walt Scacchi, revised version to appear in W. S. Bainbrigde (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, Berkshire Publishing Group, 2004.
• Free/Open Source Software Development Practices in the Computer Game Community, Walt Scacchi, IEEE Software, 21(1), 56-66, January-February 2004.
• Adopting Open Source Software Engineering (OSSE) Practices by Adopting OSSE Tools, Jason Robbins, in Making Sense of the Bazaar: Perspectives on Open Source and Free Software, J. Feller, B. Fitzgerald, S. Hissam, & K. Lakhani (Eds.), MIT Press, 2004
• Understanding Free/Open Source Software Evolution: Applying, Breaking and Rethinking the Laws of Software Evolution, Walt Scacchi, revised version in N.H. Madhavji, M.M. Lehman, J.F. Ramil and D. Perry (eds.), Software Evolution, John Wiley and Sons Inc, New York, 2004.
• Free Software Development: Cooperation and Conflict in A Virtual Organizational Culture, Margaret S. Elliott, Walt Scacchi, revised version to appear in S. Koch (ed.), Free/Open Source Software Development, Idea Publishing, 2004.
• Understanding Continuous Design in F/OSS Projects, Les Gasser, Walt Scacchi, Gabriel Ripoche, and Bryan Penne, 16th. Intern. Conf. Software & Systems Engineering and their Applications, Paris, December 2003.
• Free Software Developers as an Occupational Community: Resolving Conflicts and Fostering Collaboration, Margaret S. Elliott, revised version in ACM Group'03 Conference, Sanibel Island, FL 9-12 November 2003.
• Continuous Design of Free/Open Source Software: Workshop Report and Research Agenda, Les Gasser and Walt Scacchi, UCI-UIUC Workshop on Continuous Design of Open Source Software, 15 October 2003.
• Supporting Distributed and Decentralized Projects: Drawing Lessons from the Open Source Community, Justin R. Erenkrantz, Richard N. Taylor. Proc. 1st Workshop on Open Source in an Industrial Context, Anaheim, California, October, 2003
• When is Free/Open Source Software Development Faster, Better, and Cheaper than Software Engineering?, Walt Scacchi, Working Paper, Institute for Software Research, UC Irvine, August 2003.
• Simulating an Automated Approach to Discovery and Modeling of Open Source Software Development Processes,Chris Jensen, Walt Scacchi, Proc. ProSim'03 Workshop on Software Process Simulation and Modeling, Portland, OR May 2003.
• The Virtual Organizational Culture of a Free Software Development Community, Margaret Elliott, Proc. 3rd. Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, 25th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering, Portland, OR, May 2003.
• Release Management within Open Source Projects, Justin Erenkrantz, Proc. 3rd. Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, 25th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering, Portland, OR, May 2003.
• Issues and Experiences in Modeling Open Source Software Processes, Walt Scacchi, Proc. 3rd. Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, 25th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering, Portland, OR, May 2003.
• Automating the Discovery and Modeling of Open Source Software Processes, Chris Jensen, Walt Scacchi, Proc. 3rd. Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, 25th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering, Portland, OR, May 2003.
• Free Software: A Case Study of Software Development in a Virtual Organizational Culture, Margaret S. Elliott, Walt Scacchi, Working Paper, Institute for Software Research, UC Irvine, April 2003.
• Open source software—an evaluation, Alfonso Fuggetta, Journal of Systems and Software Volume 66, Issue 1, 15 April 2003, Pages 77-90
• Communicating and Mitigating Conflict in Open Source Software Development Projects, Margaret Elliott, Walt Scacchi, Working Paper, Institute for Software Research, UC Irvine, Fall 2002.
• Open EC/B:  A Case Study in Electronic Commerce and Open Source Software Development, Walt Scacchi, Working Paper, Institute for Software Research, UC Irvine, July 2002.
• Open Acquisition: Combining Open Source Software Development with System Acquisition, Walt Scacchi, Working Paper, Institute for Software Research, UC Irvine, July 2002.
• Understanding the Requirements for Developing Open Source Software Systems, Walt Scacchi, IEE Proceedings--Software, 149(1), 24-39, February 2002.
• Understanding the Social, Technological, and Policy Implications of Open Source Software Development, Walt Scacchi,  NSF Workshop on Open Source Software, January 2002 (revised August 2002).
• Software Development Practices in Open Software Development Communities, Walt Scacchi, presented at the 1st. Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, Toronto, Ontario, May 2001.

Other Links

• UCI-NSF Workshop on FOSS Research Repositories and Infrastructure
• UCI-UIUC-NSF Workshop on the Science of Design: Continuous Design of Open Source Software
• Center for Open Source Investigation (COSI) at CMU West
• UCI Computer Game Culture and Technology Laboratory