Kevin Carillo

The Open Source Movement: A Revolution in Software Development

The open source movement is based on a radical retake on copyright law to create high quality software whose use and development are guaranteed to the public. In this article we trace the history of the movement, highlighting its interaction with intellectual property law. The movement has spawned open source software (OSS) communities where developers and users meet to create software that meets their needs. We discuss the demographic profile of OSS participants, their ideology, their motivations, and the process of OSS development. Then we examine the impacts of OSS on society as a whole from the perspective of the information society, discussing the effects on OSS developers, users of OSS, and society at large, particularly in developing countries.

Generating quality open content: A functional group perspective based on the time, interaction, and performance theory

We applied the input-process-output approach and time, interaction, and performance theory to examine the input factors (organisational, group-related, and individual) and process factors (group production, group well-being, and member support) that yield group effectiveness, measured as high-quality articles in Wikipedia. The results provided evidence of the positive effects of: group size and shared experience on both group process variables and group effectiveness; group heterogeneity on group production; organisational support and member activeness on group well-being; member activeness on member support; and organisational support and member activeness on group effectiveness.

Email-free collaboration

The potential of social-collaboration technologies seriously questions email usage in organizations.This research investigates the role played by the notion of habit in influencing the relationship between perceived positive attributes about a social collaboration platform and employee knowledge sharing capability.A theoretical model is developed and tested through a quantitative case study methodology.Habit moderates the relationships between perceived attributes (relative advantage, perceived ease of use, and compatibility to a lesser extent) and knowledge sharing.When studying IT adoption/acceptance in the context of disruptive technologies, the link between perceptions, intention, and behavior is more complex than thought. Social collaboration technologies have rapidly spread across organizations, offering a unique opportunity to improve the exchange of knowledge among employees, especially in distributed work environments. The increasing popularity of social-collaboration tools as an employee-oriented communication channel, inevitably raises questions about the future of email as its intensive use by knowledge workers is more and more perceived as being inefficient and unproductive. Through a quantitative case study methodology, this study seeks to explore the role played by the notion of habit in explaining employee knowledge sharing capability for firms implementing social collaborative practices in the context of no-email initiatives. Data collected within a large international IT services company, which is among the first firms having made such shift, were used to test the developed conceptual model. The findings suggest that habit is positively influenced by relative advantage and perceived ease of use while relative advantage was found to positively impact knowledge sharing capability. Besides, habit moderates the relationships between three attributes (relative advantage, perceived ease of use, and compatibility to a lesser extent) and knowledge sharing capability. Theoretical and practical implications developed from these findings are then discussed.

Social Cognitive Theory in IS Research – Literature Review, Criticism, and Research Agenda

A multitude of research studies have been published investigating individual behavior from the viewpoint of Social Cognitive Theory. We have now reached a point where making sense of such a large number of studies has become a difficult task and where future research efforts must integrate past SCT findings but also express the full potential of SCT in IS research. The aim of the present paper is to organize the literature to provide a clear depiction of the use of SCT in IS research. A review the IS literature which used Social Cognitive Theory of the past 14 years yielded 62 papers that investigated individual behavior using the SCT perspective. This vast literature is mapped into the SCT framework, thus highlighting the main successes but also pitfalls of past research in using the theory. Future research directions are then identified and discussed.

The best of adaptive and predictive methodologies: open source software development, a balance between agility and discipline

Open source software development (OSSD) is a promising alternative for synthesising agile and plan-driven (e.g., waterfall) software development methodologies that retains most benefits of the two approaches. We contrast the traditional systems development life cycle approach, more recent agile software development methods, and OSSD. We compare the first two approaches with OSSD, highlighting its synthesis of benefits from both, with unique benefits of its own, offering solutions to areas where the other methodologies continue to face difficulties. OSSD is highly responsive to user needs, and potentially draws talent from a global team of developers. OSSD is a relatively low-risk methodology with potentially high return on investment. While not appropriate for all applications, especially those where the needed applications are extremely idiosyncratic to one company, it is nonetheless a valuable asset in an organisation|s portfolio of software development solutions.

The role of media dependency in predicting continuance intention to use ubiquitous media systems

The emergence of new integrated forms of ubiquitous computing devices, allied with the proliferation of fluid multi-device platforms, enabled the development of Ubiquitous Media Systems (UMS). This new and complex form of connected IT artifact encapsulates various functions and provides fluid information access across a variety of channels enabling users to accomplish a multitude of tasks and interact fluidly in a ubiquitous digital ecosystem. This significant technological evolution has engendered an urgent need to revisit our understanding of technology usage through the lens of theories that encompass the multifaceted nature of UMS. Relying on a media system perspective, this research investigates the role of individual media dependency in predicting continuance intention to use ubiquitous media systems. It argues that technology dependency has an unexplored facet that is goal-oriented in nature. Data collected from 150 UMS users were used to test the developed conceptual model. The results confirmed the overall effect of ubiquitous media systems dependency on individuals reasoned continuance usage decision. The findings suggest that the level of dependency towards a UMS raises the perceived positive attributes about the system: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use; as well as the cognitive appraisal about the discrepancies between initial expectations and post-use performance.

What makes a good contributor? Understanding contributor behavior within large Free/Open Source Software projects – A socialization perspective

Attracting new contributors is a necessary but not a sufficient condition, to ensure the survival and long-term success of Free/ Open Source Software (FOSS) projects. The well-being of a FOSS project also depends on contributors performing behaviors that nurture the project and its associated community. This study is a quantitative investigation of the socialization factors that influence contributor performance in large FOSS projects. A conceptual model was developed and empirically examined with 367 contributors from 12 large FOSS projects. The model hypothesizes the mediating effect of two proximal socialization variables, social identification and social integration, between newcomer socialization and contributor performance (conceptualized as task performance and community citizenship behaviors). The results demonstrate the influence of social identification and social integration in predicting contributor performance, as well as the importance of key socialization factors that are: task segregation, task purposefulness, interaction intensity and supportiveness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Let’s stop trying to be “sexy” – preparing managers for the (big) data-driven business era

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the inadequacies of current business education in the tackling of the educational challenges inherent to the advent of a data-driven business world. It presents an analysis of the implications of digitization and more specifically big data analytics (BDA) and data science (DS) on organizations with a special emphasis on decision-making processes and the function of managers. It argues that business schools and other educational institutions have well responded to the need to train future data scientists but have rather disregarded the question of effectively preparing future managers for the new data-driven business era.,The approach involves analysis and review of the literature.,The development of analytics skills shall not pertain to data scientists only, it must rather become an organizational cultural component shared among all employees and more specifically among decision makers: managers. In the data-driven business era, managers turn into manager-scientists who shall possess skills at the crossroad of data management, analytical/modeling techniques and tools, and business. However, the multidisciplinary nature of big data analytics and data science (BDADS) seems to collide with the dominant “functional silo design” that characterizes business schools. The scope and breadth of the radical digitally enabled change, the author are facing, may necessitate a global questioning about the nature and structure of business education.,For the sake of transparency and clarity, academia and the industry must join forces to standardize the meaning of the terms surrounding big data. BDA/DS training programs, courses, and curricula shall be organized in such a way that students shall interact with an array of specialists providing them a broad enough picture of the big data landscape. The multidisciplinary nature of analytics and DS necessitates to revisit pedagogical models by developing experiential learning and implementing a spiral-shaped pedagogical approach. The attention of scholars is needed as there exists an array of unexplored research territories. This investigation will help bridge the gap between education and the industry.,The findings will help practitioners understand the educational challenges triggered by the advent of the data-driven business era. The implications will also help develop effective trainings and pedagogical strategies that are better suited to prepare future professionals for the new data-driven business world.,By demonstrating how the advent of a data-driven business era is impacting the function and role of managers, the paper initiates a debate revolving around the question about how business schools and higher education shall evolve to better tackle the educational challenges associated with BDADS training. Elements of response and recommendations are then provided.

Beyond Open Source Software: A Framework, Implications, and Directions for Researching Open Content

The same open source philosophy that has been traditionally applied to software development can be applied to the collaborative creation of non-software information products, such as books, music and video. Such products are generically referred to as open content. Due largely to the success of large projects such as Wikipedia and the Creative Commons, open content has gained increasing attention not only in the popular media, but also in scholarly research. It is important to rigorously investigate the workings of the open source process in these new media of expression. This paper introduces the scope of emerging research on the open content phenomenon, other than open source software. We develop a framework for categorizing copyrightable works as utilitarian, factual, aesthetic or opinioned works. Based on these categories, we consider the applicability of some implications of findings from open source software research for open content. We review some key theory-driven findings from open source software research and assess the applicability of extending their implications to open content. We present a research agenda that integrates the findings and proposes a list of research topics that can help lay a solid foundation for open content research. We also briefly review the literature for some specific directions of open content research, involving the quality of products, the marketing of digital music, and open content in developing countries.A shorter version of this paper was published in conference proceedings: Okoli, Chitu and Kevin Carillo (2013). Beyond open source software: framework and implications for open content research. Proceedings of the 21st European Conference for Information Systems. Utrecht, Netherlands. June 5-8, 2013.

Understanding IS Theory: An Interpretation of Key IS Theoretical Frameworks Using Social Cognitive Theory

Past research studies have introduced a multitude of theoretical models and constructs when investigating individual behavior. We have now reached a point where the IS discipline requires cohesive guidance to make sense of such a large number of theoretical considerations, as well as to assist in identifying theories that have the potential to shed new light on the complex interaction of technology and behavior. The aim of the present chapter is to use Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) as a meta-level framework to organize the theoretical models and constructs used in the IS literature, so as to provide a clear and integrated depiction of the state of our theoretical knowledge. First, a thorough review of the IS literature which used SCT was performed. Second, the major behavioral theoretical models used in IS research were also reviewed. This literature is mapped into the SCT framework, thus highlighting the main successes but also pitfalls of past research. Future research directions are then identified and discussed.