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Internet Success: A Study of Open-Source Software Commons

Online ISBN:
9780262301206
Print ISBN:
9780262017251
Publisher:
The MIT Press
Book

Internet Success: A Study of Open-Source Software Commons

Published:
8 June 2012
Online ISBN:
9780262301206
Print ISBN:
9780262017251
Publisher:
The MIT Press

Abstract

The use of open-source software (OSS)—readable software source code that can be copied, modified, and distributed freely—has expanded dramatically in recent years. The number of OSS projects hosted on SourceForge.net (the largest hosting Web site for OSS), for example, grew from just over 100,000 in 2006 to more than 250,000 at the beginning of 2011. But why are some projects successful—that is, able to produce usable software and sustain ongoing development over time—while others are abandoned? This book, the product of a large-scale empirical study to look at social, technical, and institutional aspects of OSS, examines factors that lead to success in OSS projects and work toward a better understanding of Internet-based collaboration. Drawing on literature from many disciplines and using a theoretical framework developed for the study of environmental commons, it examines stages of OSS development, presenting multivariate statistical models of success and abandonment. The authors argue that analyzing the conditions of OSS successes may also inform Internet collaborations in fields beyond software engineering, particularly those which aim to solve complex technical, social, and political problems.

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