Participation architectures for free and open-source software innovation

Purcell, Michelle; Gasson, Susan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/89311 Copy

Description

Title

Participation architectures for free and open-source software innovation

Author(s)

Purcell, Michelle; Gasson, Susan

Issue Date

2016-03-15

Keyword(s)

• FOSS communities
• participation architecture
• design affordances
• user engagement
• distributed cognition

Abstract

Free, Open-Source Software (FOSS) communities are centered on software product innovation. But the social organization of FOSS communities of practice and inappropriate technology platform design can discourage product users from engaging with FOSS communities. The process of suggesting, exploring, and gaining acceptance for new software features can be daunting. We study trajectories of user-participation and social network structures in a vertically-integrated FOSS community to explore what distinguishes successful from unsuccessful participation architecture. We identify socio-cultural and IT platform design (instrumental) barriers to new feature acceptance, to suggest socio-technical affordances for FOSS participation architectures.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

IConference 2016 Proceedings

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89311

DOI

https://doi.org/10.9776/16242

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2016 is held by the authors. Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the authors.

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