Browsing by Author "English, Robert"

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Preliminary Steps Toward a General Theory of Internet-based Collective-Action in Digital Information Commons: Findings from a Study of Open Source Software Projects
(2013) Schweik, Charles M.; English, Robert
"This paper presents some of the findings from a 5-year empirical study of FOSS (free/libre and open source software) commons, completed in 2011. FOSS projects are Internet-based common property regimes where the project source code is developed over the Internet. The resulting software is generally distributed with a license that provides users with the freedoms to access, use, read, modify and redistribute the software. In this study we used three different and very large datasets (approximately 107,000; 174,000 and 1400 cases, respectively) with information on FOSS projects residing in Sourceforge.net, one of the largest, if not the largest, FOSS repository in the world. We employ various quantitative methods to uncover factors that lead some FOSS projects to ongoing collaborative success, while others become abandoned. After presenting some of our studys results, we articulate the collaborative 'story' of FOSS that emerged. We close the paper by discussing some key findings that can contribute to a general theory of Internet-based collective-action and FOSS-like forms of digital online commons."
Toward a General Theory of Internet-Based Collective-Action in Digital Information Commons: Findings from a Study of Open Source Software Projects
(2012) Schweik, Charles M.; English, Robert
"Any conference interested in 'networked peer production,' 'cooperation of distributed knowledge communities,' and 'digital information commons' must focus at least some attention on collaboration in free/libre and open source software (FOSS). After all, open-source computer programmers, perhaps more than any other category of Internet user, have significant experience with collaboration in online, digital information commons. Simply put, FOSS projects are Internet-based common property regimes where the project source code is developed over the Internet. These software are generally distributed with a license that provides users with the freedoms to access, use, read, modify and redistribute the software. In this paper, we present some of the findings from a 5-year empirical study of FOSS commons, just completed in 2011. In this study we used three different and very large datasets (approximately 107,000, 174,000 and 1400 cases respectively) with information on FOSS projects residing in Sourceforge.net, one of the largest, if not the largest, FOSS repository in the world. We employ various quantitative methods to uncover factors that lead some FOSS projects to ongoing collaborative success, while others become abandoned. After presenting some of our studys results, we articulate the collaborative 'story' of FOSS that emerged. We close the paper by discussing some key findings that begin to point us toward a general theory of Internet-based collective-action FOSS-like forms of digital online commons."
Tragedy of the FOSS Commons? Investigating the Institutional Designs of Free/libre and Open Source Software Projects
(2007) Schweik, Charles M.; English, Robert
"Free/Libre and Open Source Software projects (FOSS) are a form of Internet-based commons. Since 1968, when Garrett Hardin published his famous article 'Tragedy of the Commons' in the journal Science, there has been significant interest in understanding how to manage commons appropriately, particularly in environmental fields. An important distinction between natural resource commons and FOSS commons is that the 'tragedy' to be avoided in natural resources is over-harvesting and the potential destruction of the resource. In FOSS commons the 'tragedy' to be avoided is project abandonment and a 'dead' project. Institutions -- defined as informal norms, more formalized rules, and governance structures -- are mechanisms that have been shown to help overcome tragedies in some environmental commons situations. The goal of this paper is to more formally describe the concept of FOSS institutions and to conduct a preliminary examination of FOSS projects in order to shed light into institutions, their composition and importance to the projects. We report findings from an initial set of interviews of FOSS developers and find that in commons settings that need to encourage contribution rather than control over-appropriation, the institutional designs appear to be extremely lean and as unobtrusive as possible. To the FOSS programmers we interviewed, institutional structure adds transaction costs and hinders collective action. This is markedly different from traditional environmental commons settings."