Category Archives: Research Tracks

Rhizome and Wikipedia: A Humanities Based Approach Towards a Structural Explanation of the Namespace

Announcement, Conference Contributions, OpenSym 2014, Research Contributions, Research Posters, Research Tracks, Wikipedia Track

Title: Rhizome and Wikipedia: A Humanities Based Approach Towards a Structural Explanation of the Namespace

Authors: Stephan Ligl

Abstract: In this paper, I describe the similarities between the rhizome according to Deleuze and Guattari with their six principles and the wikipedia’s main namespace on the one hand and the principles of a botanical rhizome and wikipedia’s main namespace on the other hand and try to compare them.

This contribution to OpenSym 2014 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2014 proceedings on or after August 27, 2014.

Not Only for Ideation, But Also for Signaling: Incorporating User-Profile-Webpages into Virtual Ideas Communities

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Full Research Papers, Open Innovation Track, OpenSym 2014, Research Contributions, Research Tracks

Title: Not Only for Ideation, But Also for Signaling: Incorporating User-Profile-Webpages into Virtual Ideas Communities

Authors: Ulrich Bretschneider, Philipp Ebel, Shkodran Zogaj, Jan Marco Leimeister

Abstract: This research-in-progress-paper describes the case of SAPiens, which is a Virtual Ideas Community (VIC). Typically, SAPiens – and VICs in general – focuses solely on supporting the ideation interactions among members. There is evidence from a survey that SAPiens members are also interested in actively signaling competences, experiences and skills to third parties. However, SAPiens does not offer IT functionalities that would allow for such a signaling. Against this backdrop, we propose to enrich SAPiens through User Profile Webpages allowing SAPiens members to construct a public profile within the community and thereby to signal individual capabilities, skills and experiences. The aim of this action design research is to design such an IT artifact by building on the signaling theory. After this initial design, our research constitutes a circular process of constant refinement as well as piloting and evaluation of the IT artifact in the real world setting of the SAPiens VIC.

This contribution to OpenSym 2014 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2014 proceedings on or after August 27, 2014.

From Mashup Applications to Open Data Ecosystem

Announcement, Conference Contributions, Full Research Papers, Open Data Track, OpenSym 2014, Research Contributions, Research Tracks

Title: From Mashup Applications to Open Data Ecosystem

Authors: Timo Aaltonen (Tampere University of Technology), Tommi Mikkonen (Tampere University of Technology), Heikki Peltola (Tampere University of Technology), Arto Salminen (Tampere University of Technology)

Abstract: Web-based software is available all over the world instantly after the online release. Applications can be used and updated without need to install anything, with natural support for collaboration, which allows users to interact and share the same applications over the Web. In addition, numerous web services allowing users to upload, download, store and modify private and public resources have emerged. However, as the amount of web services and devices used to consume as well as generate data has exploded, it is difficult to access and manage relevant data. In this paper, we start from the principles of mashups, reflect their use to the concepts of software ecosystems, and finally extend the discussion to open data generated by users themselves. As a technical contribution, we also introduce our proof-of-concept implementation of a mashup system built on wellness data, and discuss the main lessons we have learned in the process.

This contribution to OpenSym 2014 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2014 proceedings on or after August 27, 2014.

Utilization and Development Contribution of Open Source Software in Japanese IT Companies: An Exploratory Study of the Effect on Business Growth

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Title: Utilization and Development Contribution of Open Source Software in Japanese IT Companies: An Exploratory Study of the Effect on Business Growth

Authors: Terutaka Tansho (Shimane University, Japan), Tetsuo Noda (Shimane University, Japan)

Abstract: The usage of Open Source Software (OSS) has been more general these days and OSS are utilized in a wide range of business fields not only IT industries. Behind the expansion, there exist OSS development communities, where voluntary engineers dedicate their time and effort for the improvement. Considering development engineers in the companies as input resources, it is important to investigate the output of business growth. In this study, we conducted questionnaire survey to Japanese IT companies in 2013, and then analyzed the present state and relation between OSS utilization and development contribution. 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. With regard to the effect on the business growth, the results of correlation analysis implicate that OSS utilization is related to the sales growth in the present term and that development contribution is related to the future growth of the employee number in the company. In order to explore the direct effect on the business growth, we constructed the models of multiple-logistic and logistic analyses, however, no direct and explicit determinants are found from the results of the analyses. Our research endeavors to investigate the OSS effect on the business growth are still on the way, but it is meaningful to provide the present state in numbers and hopefully this will lay some foundation for further study in this field.

This contribution to OpenSym 2014 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2014 proceedings on or after August 27, 2014.

Filling the Gaps of Development Logs and Bug Issue Data

Announcement, Conference Contributions, F/L/OSS Track, OpenSym 2014, Research Contributions, Research Tracks, Short Research Papers

Title: Filling the Gaps of Development Logs and Bug Issue Data

Authors: Bilyaminu Auwal Romo (Brunel University London), Andrea Capiluppi (Brunel University London), Tracy Hall (Brunel University London)

Abstract: It has been suggested that the data from bug repositories is not always in sync or complete compared to the logs detailing the actions of developers on source code. In this paper, we trace two sources of information relative to software bugs: the change logs of the actions of developers and the issues reported as bugs. The aim is to identify and quantify the discrepancies between the two sources in recording and storing the developer logs relative to bugs. Focussing on the databases produced by two mining software repository tools, CVSAnalY and Bicho, we use part of the SZZ algorithm to identify bugs and to compare how the ”defects-fixing changes” are recorded in the two databases. We use a working example to show how to do so. The results indicate that there is a significant amount of information, not in sync when tracing bugs in the two databases. We, therefore, propose an automatic approach to re-align the two databases, so that the collected information is mirrored and in sync.

This contribution to OpenSym 2014 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2014 proceedings on or after August 27, 2014.

Socio-Technical Congruence in the Ruby Ecosystem

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Title: Socio-Technical Congruence in the Ruby Ecosystem

Authors: Mahbubul Syeed (Tampere University of Technology), Klaus Marius Hansen (University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark), Imed Hammouda (Chalmers and University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Konstantinos Manikas (University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark)

Abstract: Existing studies show that open source projects may enjoy high levels of socio-technical congruence despite their open and distributed character. Such observations are yet to be confirmed in the case of larger open source ecosystems in which developers contribute to different projects within the ecosystem. In this paper, we empirically study the relationships between the developer coordination activities and the project dependency structure in the Ruby ecosystem. Our motivation is to verify whether the ecosystem context maintains the high socio-technical congruence levels observed in many smaller scale FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) projects. Our study results show that the collaboration pattern among the developers in Ruby ecosystem is not necessarily shaped by the communication needs indicated by the dependencies among the ecosystem projects.

This contribution to OpenSym 2014 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2014 proceedings on or after August 27, 2014.

The Impact of Automatic Crash Reports on Bug Triaging and Development in Mozilla

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Title: The Impact of Automatic Crash Reports on Bug Triaging and Development in Mozilla

Authors: Iftekhar Ahmed (Oregon State University), Nitin Mohan (Oregon State University), Carlos Jensen (Oregon State University)

Abstract: Free/Open Source Software projects often rely on users submitting bug reports. However, reports submitted by novice users may lack information critical to developers, and the process may be intimidating and difficult. To gather more and better data, projects deploy automatic crash reporting tools, which capture stack traces and memory dumps when a crash occurs. These systems potentially generate large volumes of data, which may overwhelm developers, and their presence may discourage users from submitting traditional bug reports. In this paper, we examine Mozilla’s automatic crash reporting system and how it affects their bug triaging process. We find that fewer than 0.00009% of crash reports end up in a bug report, but as many as 2.33% of bug reports have data from crash reports added. Feedback from developers shows that despite some problems, these systems are valuable. We conclude with a discussion of the pros and cons of automatic crash reporting systems.

This contribution to OpenSym 2014 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2014 proceedings on or after August 27, 2014.