Title: Measuring the Crowd – A Preliminary Taxonomy of Crowdsourcing Metrics

Authors: Eoin Cullina, Kieran Conboy, Lorraine Morgan (NUI Galway, J.E Cairnes School of Business & Economics, Newcastle, Galway, Ireland)

Abstract: Crowdsourcing initiatives benefit from tapping into diversity. A vast plethora of disparate individuals, organizations, frameworks and skillsets can all play a role in sourcing solutions to a challenge. Nevertheless, while crowdsourcing has become a pervasive phenomenon, there is a paucity of research that addresses how the crowdsourcing process is measured. Whereas research has advanced various taxonomies of crowdsourcing none to date have specifically addressed the issue of measuring either specific stages of the crowdsourcing process or the process as a whole. As a first step towards achieving this goal, this research-inprogress paper examines crowdsourcing at the operational level with a view towards (i) identifying the parts of the process (ii) identifying what can be measured and (iii) categorising operational metrics to facilitate deployment in practice. The taxonomy advanced is overarching in nature and can be deployed across disciplines. Furthermore, the preliminary taxonomy presented will offer practitioners a comprehensive list of metrics that will enable them to facilitate comparison across various crowdsourcing initiatives.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: Open Innovation for Innovation Tools: the Case of Co-Design -Platforms

Authors: Albrecht Fritzsche, Angela Roth, Kathrin Möslein (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany)

Abstract: This paper explores the dynamics of openness and enclosure of innovation activities with IT artifacts on the example of co-design platforms. While modern information and communication technologies offer many new possibilities for innovation, they also subject innovation to the underlying technical structures, which can misdirect the activities on the platform. In order to avoid this, we propose an open innovation approach for open innovation solutions. We perform an empirical study on two co-design platforms which become subjects of innovation themselves in an open laboratory in the downtown area of a European city. Visitors to the laboratory are allowed to engage in innovate activities regarding the co-design platforms in whatever way they want. The results show that they do not only address technical improvements of the platforms, but also look into new directions to make the platforms more relevant or to replace them by other ways of innovating in the given contexts

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: Toward understanding new feature request systems as participation architectures for supporting open innovation

Authors: Michelle W. Purcell (College of Computing & Informatics Drexel University)

Abstract: Most research regarding innovation in open source software communities pertains to identifying supporting conditions for promoting code contribution as a way to innovate the software. Instead, this paper seeks to identify social and technological affordances of new feature request systems and their potential to support open innovation through integration of peripheral community members’ ideas for advancing the software. Initial findings from the first of a planned study of multiple open source software communities are presented to identify attributes of effective participation architectures.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: Public Domain Rank: Identifying Notable Individuals with the Wisdom of the Crowd

Authors: Allen B. Riddell (Neukom Institute for Computational Science Leslie Center for the Humanities Dartmouth College)

Abstract: Identifying literary, scientific, and technical works of enduring interest is challenging. Few are able to name significant works across more than a handful of domains or languages. This paper introduces an automatic method for identifying authors of notable works throughout history. Notability is defined using the record of which works volunteers have made available in public domain digital editions. A significant benefit of this bottom-up approach is that it also provides a novel and reproducible index of notability for all individuals with Wikipedia pages. This method promises to supplement the work of cultural organizations and institutions seeking to publicize the availability of notable works and prioritize works for preservation and digitization.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: On the role of FOSS business models and participation architectures in supporting open innovation

Authors: Michelle W. Purcell (College of Computing & Informatics Drexel University)

Abstract: Most research regarding innovation in free and open source software (FOSS) pertains to identifying supporting conditions for promoting code contribution. This raises concerns about the ability of FOSS communities to remain innovative based only on the perspectives of developer-users. Preliminary research suggests different open source business models may provide motivation to support greater involvement of non-developer users. This research focuses on understanding the relationship between business model and supporting participation architectures, beyond users’ code contributions, to enable user participation in design of the software.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: Volunteer Management in Open Source Communities

Authors: Ann Barcomb (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Abstract: Open source community management is largely ad-hoc and relies on practitioner guides. Yet there is a great deal of information about volunteer management in the general volunteering literature, open source literature and general volunteering guides which could be relevant to open source communities if it were categorized and validated. Bringing these different sources of information together also reveals gaps in our understanding of volunteer management in open source which I hope to address.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: Collaborative Systems with Applications for Social Good

Authors: Rakshit Agrawal (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Abstract: Crowdsourcing and collaborative systems have become an important part of Computer Science system deployments. The research discussed in this paper designs and explores the use of collaborative systems for crowdsourced user participation in different kinds of tasks. Application focus of projects discussed here is mostly towards social good. This paper provides an overview of my research objectives and approach, and identifies my work on both usability of systems as well as data specific definitions for them. Acknowledging the importance of user participation in development projects, I work on structuring systems in a way that they can extract best response from participants and help in the overall goal. The paper also describes my objectives to study user behavior based on their participation in various collaborative systems.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: Utilization and Development Contribution of Open Source Software in Japanese IT Companies: An Exploratory Study of the Effect on Business Growth (2nd report based on 2014 survey)

Authors: Terutaka Tansho (Collaboration Center, Shimane University), Tetsuo Noda (Faculty of Law & Literature, Shimane University)

Abstract: The usage of Open Source Software (OSS) has been extended in a wide range of business fields not only IT industries. Behind this current situation, there are tremendous inputs by the volunteer engineers in the development communities. In this series of studies, we have conducted questionnaire survey to Japanese IT companies in 2012 and 2013, and then analyzed the relation between OSS utilization and development contribution, and how these affect the business growth. Our study revealed that Japanese IT companies are rather free riders of OSS, the volume of development contributions are far less than that of utilization. From our previous studies, it was anticipated that some OSS-related factors were affecting the business growth; however, clear evidence has not been found. In autumn 2014, we conducted the questionnaire survey for the third time and this paper presents the survey results as the second report of the continued research. We constructed the simplified Logistic Model to investigate the influential factors on business growth. However, no clear evidence was found as the same as the previous study. In summary, we conclude that there are some form of relationships between OSS utilization and development contribution, but these are not the determinant factors on the business growth in the Japanese IT companies at present.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: An Investigation of Migrating from Proprietary RTOS to Embedded Linux

Authors: Oscar Muchow, David Ustarbowski, Imed Hammouda (Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

Abstract:Embedded systems and the open source operating system Linux have been going hand in hand for a long time now. Companies using Linux for their embedded products are praising it for being time and cost efficient when it comes to performance and maintainability. Another solution for embedded
systems is a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS). The goal of this this paper is to investigate whether a traditional proprietary RTOS can be substituted with embedded Linux, and if this kind of migration can lead to reduced licensing costs and increased general quality of the system. We used a qualitative research method for this case-study. The investigation was conducted with interviews as the main source of information. The result of this study is an empirical model we named ‘Embedded Linux Adoption Model’. We concluded that in many cases a proprietary RTOS can be substituted with embedded Linux without affecting the critical needs of the system. The study also showed that many embedded system developers are very receptive to open source solutions and could think of contributing to the
community.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: The FLOSS History in Japan: An Ethnographic Approach

Authors: Jun Iio (Chuo University), Masayuki Hatta (Surugadai University), Ko Kazaana (Cybozu, Inc.)

Abstract: This paper reports an overview of the Internet history project which especially focuses on Free / Libre / Open-Source Software (FLOSS) history. The project adopts an ethnographical approach and it aims to compose a chronicle on the growth of FLOSS history in Japan. An outcome of the project is expected to be not only a record but a compass for younger generations. The project has already started and conducted several interviews. In this paper, an interim report of our analysis based on the interviews is presented.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.