Category Archives: Announcement

A Framework for Open Assurance of Learning

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Open Educational Resources Track, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers

Title: A Framework for Open Assurance of Learning

Authors: Gokul Bhandari and Maureen Gowing (Odette School of Business, University of Windsor)

Abstract: Assurance of Learning (AOL) refers to the outcomes assessment process which involves the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and development [8]. While emerging trends such as open education, open learning, learning analytics, academic analytics, and big data in education have recently become mainstream, studies regarding the design and development of open source analytics applications for AOL are non-existent. In this paper, we describe an application called AOL Analyzer that we developed for our business school last year to assist in the analysis of AOL results reported by faculty. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first paper to bridge the existing gap in
AOL analytics research.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

User Generated Services during Software Introductions

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Open Innovation Track, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers

Title: User Generated Services during Software Introductions

Authors: Martin Schymanietz and Nivedita Agarwal (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Abstract: In this paper, we describe the lack of user participation and involvement during software introductions. Especially big projects with a volume larger than 10 million US$ are very likely to neglect important benchmarks like e.g. the budget or even completely fail. To fight these costly failures and support software introductions, we propose a service system that integrates the user into the software rollout. This service system consists of three service modules that are supported by components for feedback, communication, user incentives and motivation as well as. The service modules shall empower the users to give support and deliver tutorials or training to other users and furthermore establish a project specific platform which encourages a continuous improvement of the current software solution.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Exploring the roles of external facilitators in IT-driven open strategizing

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Open Innovation Track, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers

Title: Exploring the roles of external facilitators in IT-driven open strategizing

Authors: Josh Morton, Alex Wilson and Louise Cooke (Loughborough University; School of Business and Economics)

Abstract: This paper examines the different roles external facilitators have in information technology driven open strategizing. Using a strategy-as-practice lens and drawing on two empirical cases of open strategy in organizations, our paper highlights four emerging roles of external facilitators which we call; structuring, promoting, moderating and analyzing. In concluding the paper we call for further research relating to external facilitators and open strategy.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Comparing OSM Area-Boundary Data to DBpedia

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Open Data Track, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers

Title: Comparing OSM Area-Boundary Data to DBpedia

Authors: Doris Silbernagl, Nikolaus Krismer and Günther Specht (Department of Computer Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria)

Abstract: OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a well known and widely used data source for geographic data. This kind of data can also be found in Wikipedia in the form of geographic locations, such as cities or countries. Next to the geographic coordinates, also statistical data about the area of these elements can be present. Since it is possible to extract these data from OpenStreetMap as well, it is sensible to examine the quality of the OSM information about those specific boundary elements and compare them to an also crowd-sourced source like Wikipedia. Hence, in this paper OSM data of different countries are used to calculate the area of valid boundary (multi) polygons and are then compared to the respective DBpedia (a large scale knowledge base extract from Wikipedia) entries.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Predicting the quality of user contributions via LSTMs

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Full Research Papers, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Wikis and Open Collaboration Track

Title: Predicting the quality of user contributions via LSTMs

Authors: Rakshit Agrawal and Luca de Alfaro (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Abstract: In many collaborative systems it is useful to automatically estimate the quality of new contributions; the estimates can be used for instance to flag contributions for review. To predict the quality of a contribution by a user, it is useful to take into account both the characteristics of the revision itself, and the past history of contributions by that user. In several approaches, the user’s history is first summarized into a number of features, such as number of contributions, user reputation, time from previous revision, and so forth. These features are then passed along with features of the current revision to a machine-learning classifier, which outputs a prediction for the user contribution. The summarization step is used because the usual machine learning models, such as neural nets, SVMs, etc. rely on a fixed number of input features.We show in this paper that this manual selection of summarization features can be avoided by adopting machine-learning approaches that are able to cope with temporal sequences of input.

In particular, we show that Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) neural nets are able to process directly the variable length history of a user’s activity in the system, and produce an output that is highly predictive of the quality of the next contribution by the user. Our approach does not eliminatethe process of feature selection, which is present in all machine learning. Rather, it eliminates the need for deciding which features from a user’s past are most useful for predicting the future: we can simply pass to the machine-learning apparatus all the past, and let it come up with an estimate for the quality of the next contribution.

We present models combining LSTM and NN for predicting revision quality and show that the prediction accuracy attained is far superior to the one obtained using the NN alone. More interestingly, we also show that the prediction attained is superior to the one obtained using user reputation as a feature summarizing the quality of a user’s past work. This can be explained by noting that the primary function of user reputation is to provide an incentive towards performing useful contributions, rather than to be a feature optimized for prediction of future contribution quality.

We also show that the LSTM output changes in a natural way in response to user behavior, increasing when the user performs a sequence of good quality contributions,and decreasing when the user performs a sequence of low-quality work. The LSTM output for a user could thus be usefully shown to other users, alongside the user’s reputation and other information.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Differentiating Communication Styles of Leaders on the Linux Kernel Mailing List

Announcement, Conference Contributions, F/L/OSS Track, Full Research Papers, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks

Title: Differentiating Communication Styles of Leaders on the Linux Kernel Mailing List

Authors: Daniel Schneider, Scott Spurlock and Megan Squire (Elon University)

Abstract: Much communication between developers of free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS) projects happens on email mailing lists. Geographically and temporally dispersed development teams use email as an asynchronous, centralized, persistently stored institutional memory for sharing code samples, discussing bugs, and making decisions. Email is especially important to large, mature projects, such as the Linux kernel, which has thousands of developers and a multilayered leadership structure. In this paper, we collect and analyze data to understand the communication patterns in such a community. How do the leaders of the Linux Kernel project write in email? What are the salient features of their writing, and can we discern one leader from another? We find that there are clear written markers for two leaders who have been particularly important to recent discussions of leadership style on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): Linux Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman. Furthermore, we show that it is straightforward to use a machine learning strategy to automatically differentiate these two leaders based on their writing. Our findings will help researchers understand how this community works, and why there is occasional controversy regarding differences in communication styles on the LKML.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Motivation of Newcomers to FLOSS Projects

Announcement, Conference Contributions, F/L/OSS Track, Full Research Papers, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks

Title: Motivation of Newcomers to FLOSS Projects

Authors: Christoph Hannebauer and Volker Gruhn (paluno – The Ruhr Institute for Software Technology University of Duisburg-Essen)

Abstract: While the motivations of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) developers have been the subject of extensive research, the motivations for their initial contribution to a FLOSS project has received only little attention. This survey of 94 newcomers to the FLOSS projects Mozilla and GNOME identifies the motivations for the modification of the FLOSS components and for the submission of these modifications back to the FLOSS project. With the responses, we test a hypothesis based on the previous qualitative research on newcomer motivations: Most newcomers modify a component because they need the modification for themselves. Surprisingly, this is not the case for our respondents, who have a variety of primary modification motivations. Newcomer occupation is discussed as a reason for this difference to previous results.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Observing Custom Software Modifications: A Quantitative Approach of Tracking the Evolution of Patch Stacks

Announcement, Conference Contributions, F/L/OSS Track, OpenSym 2016, Proceedings, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers

Title: Observing Custom Software Modifications: A Quantitative Approach of Tracking the Evolution of Patch Stacks

Authors: Ralf Ramsauer (Technical University of Applied Sciences Regensburg); Daniel Lohmann (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg); Wolfgang Mauerer (Technical University of Applied Sciences Regensburg Siemens AG, Munich)

Abstract: Modifications to open-source software (OSS) are often provided in the form of “patch stacks”– sets of changes (patches) that modify a given body of source code. Maintaining patch stacks over extended periods of time is problematic when the underlying base project changes frequently. This necessitates a continuous and engineering-intensive adaptation of the stack. Nonetheless, long-term maintenance is an important problem for changes that are not integrated into projects, for instance when they are controversial or only of value to a limited group of users. We present and implement a methodology to systematically examine the temporal evolution of patch stacks, track non-functional properties like integrability and maintainability, and estimate the eventual economic and engineering effort required to successfully develop and maintain patch stacks. Our results provide a basis for quantitative research on patch stacks, including statistical analyses and other methods that lead to actionable advice on the construction and long-term maintenance of custom extensions to OSS.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

GNU Health: A Free/Libre Community-based Health Information System

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Keynotes / Invited Talks, OpenSym 2016

Luis Falcón Martín of GNU Solidario, will be presenting the following keynote at OpenSym 2016:

Title: GNU Health: A Free/Libre Community-based Health Information System

Abstract: GNU Health is community-based, Free/Libre Health and Hospital Information System, deployed in many countries around the globe. It merges Social Medicine with state of the art advances in bioinformatics, providing a framework for integrative medicine, governments and Public Health institutions as well as research organizations. In this presentation we will talk about case studies in Public health, integration with other Free Software community projects such as OpenStreetMaps, and the upcoming GNU Health Federation model to interconnect large, heterogeneous health networks. We will present some of the upcoming features on GNU Health, including topics on interoperability and standards (HL7 FHIR) or MyGnuHealth, a mobile application for Personal Health. Finally, we will dedicate a section to the GNU Health functionality on bioinformatics, personalized medicine, clinical genetics, big data, and cooperation with the academia, research institutions and multi-lateral organizations.

Speaker’s Biography: Luis Falcón, M.D., B.Sc, holds a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the California State University, Northridge (USA) and in Medicine from IUCS, Buenos Aires (Argentina). Luis is a social, animal rights and Free Software activist. He is the founder of GNU Solidario, a nonprofit organization that delivers Health and Education with Free Software. Luis is the author of GNU Health (http://health.gnu.org), the award-winning Free/Libre Health and Hospital Information System. He is a guest speaker at national and international conferences about Free Software, eHealth and Social Medicine. He currently lives in the Canary Islands.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.

Good Citizenship is Good Business: Open Source, Sustainable Development and the Corporate Bottom Line

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Keynotes / Invited Talks, OpenSym 2016

Leslie Hawthorn will be presenting the following keynote at OpenSym 2016:

Title: Good Citizenship is Good Business: Open Source, Sustainable Development and the Corporate Bottom Line

Abstract: This talk examines the current landscape of open source project and enterprise interplay, including the tensions between them. Leslie will demonstrate how models have developed to ease these problematic areas for corporations, but how these new models do not necessarily meet the needs of individual developers. She will conclude with a discussion of how adhering to well-worn approaches to open source software development are not only best practice for corporate players, but provide them with long-term benefits from the perspective of sustainability, employee retention and community good will.

Speaker’s Biography: As an internationally known Developer Relations strategist and Community Management expert, Leslie Hawthorn has spent the past decade creating, cultivating, and enabling open source communities. She’s best known for creating Google Code-in, the world’s first global initiative to involve pre-university students in open source software development, launching the second-most trafficked Google’s Developer Blog, and receiving an O’Reilly Open Source Award in 2010 for her work to grow the Google Summer of Code program and her contributions to Humanitarian open source projects. During her 15 years working in the technology industry, Leslie has developed, honed and shared open source expertise spanning the Enterprise to NGOs, including senior roles at Google, Red Hat, the Open Source Initiative, the OSU Open Source Lab and several startups, including Elastic. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, she and her family now call Amsterdam home, though she travels worldwide to keynote about open source, and building products and teams that are built to last. You can follow her adventures on Twitter @lhawthorn.

This contribution to OpenSym 2016 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2016 proceedings on or after August 17, 2016.