Thesis Proposal: Vertical Interaction in Open Software Engineering Communities

Software engineering is still a relatively young field, struggling to develop consistent standards and methods across the domain. For a given project, developers can choose from dozens of models, tools, platforms, and languages for specification, design, implementation, and testing. The globalization of software engineering and the rise of Open Source further complicate the issues as firms now must collaborate and coordinate with other firms and individuals possessing a myriad of goals, norms, values, expertise, and preferences. This thesis takes a vertical examination of Open Source ecosystems to identify the way that foundations, firms, and individuals come together to produce world class software despite their differing goals and values. At the macro level, I examine how competitors work together under open source foundations to create a stable market for each participant. Next I propose a study of interactions between firms in the community to identify to what degree the stated collaboration is actually present. At the next level down I examine how the presence of commercial firms in a community 1 impacts that participation of individual developers within the community. After I analyze the methods of individual communication in Open Source communities to see if the patterns of communication can be used as a predictive element for project success. Finally, I close with a set of recommendations for firms wishing to participate in Open Source.