Organizational aspects of OSS communities

di 31 mei, 13:30 - 15:00
(Moderator: Ruben van Wendel de Joode)

Many of the larger open source communities connect hundreds if not thousands of individuals with different interests, backgrounds and motives. Many of these people are volunteers who are not paid to participate in the communities. Furthermore, many never get to see each other in real life. They meet virtually, on the Internet. Yet they are able to collectively develop software that is highly complex, that has proven to work and that is viewed as a viable alternative in today’s software market. The question that underlies this track of the conference is: ‘How?’ How do individuals in the communities collaborate and coordinate their activities? An understanding of this question is relevant for all those people that are thinking of adopting OSS or that want to become involved in OSS communities. To understand how OSS communities are organized a number of well-known OSS representatives will talk about their experiences in the communities. They will discuss a selection of aspects, which they believe ensure coordination and ensure continuity of the communities. Next to experiences this track will have at least one scientific presentation by two researchers who have done empirical research on the question of coordination in OSS communities. They will present some generic mechanisms that facilitate coordination in OSS communities.

speaker: Ruben van Wendel de Joode, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, Xavier Heymans, Tineke Egyedi, Olivier Sessink, Arthur Buijs, Ton Roosendaal
location: Room D109 , Oudemanhuispoort

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