Maha Shaikh

An Examination of the Use of Open Source Software Processes as a Global Software Development Solution for Commercial Software Engineering

This paper outlines the phenomenon of Inner Source software development and places it in the context of existing open source literature. Our study includes an analysis of multiple case studies of Inner Source in use in large scale global software development companies. The lessons learned from these case studies help us to contrast traditional open source principles with Inner Source principles, and we then gather these lessons, to create our preliminary framework, in order to make sense of when and how firms can adopt Inner Source. Our framework helps to make sense of the practical issues of adopting and managing Inner Source. We have highlighted the emerging trends in the Inner Source phenomenon and surrounding areas. Awareness of this may be of great benefit to researchers in the area and industrial practitioners.

Adopting Open Source Software: A Practical Guide

Government agencies and public organizations often consider adopting open source software (OSS) for reasons of transparency, cost, citizen access, and greater efficiency in communication and delivering services. Adopting Open Source Software offers five richly detailed real-world case studies of OSS adoption by public organizations. The authors analyze the cases and develop an overarching, conceptual framework to clarify the various enablers and inhibitors of OSS adoption in the public sector. The book provides a useful resource for policymakers, practitioners, and academics.The five cases of OSS adoption include a hospital in Ireland; an IT consortium serving all the municipalities of the province of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy; schools and public offices in the Extremadura region of Spain; the Massachusetts state governments open standards policy in the United States; and the ICT department of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The book provides a comparative analysis of these cases around the issues of motivation, strategies, technologies, economic and social aspects, and the implications for theory and practice.

Framing the Conundrum of Total Cost of Ownership of Open Source Software

This paper reflects the results of phase I of our study on the total cost of ownership (TCO) of open source software adoption. Not only have we found TCO to be an intriguing issue but it is contentious, baffling and each company approaches it in a distinctive manner (and sometimes not at all). In effect it is a conundrum that needs unpacking before it can be explained and understood. Our paper discusses the components of TCO as total cost of ownership and total cost of acquisition (and besides). Using this broad dichotomy and its various components we then analyze our data to make sense of procurement decisions in relation to open source software in the public sector and private companies.

Do penguins eat scallops

We (Tony Cornford and Maha Shaikh) had a long standing interest in open source and in particular in the enduring debates over the use of version control software (VCS) within the Linux kernel community, a debate that was (and still is) the basis for Maha’s PhD research. The call for papers provided both of us with a general motivation to prepare and submit a manuscript. However, motivations in our case are fragile alignments that are often displaced, translated and diffused. For Claudio, then the Convenor (Chair) of our Department, our vague commitment was something to be worked on and reinforced. Indeed, as the department’s Boss (a word he liked to use) Claudio exhibited a talent for an engaging (if at times enraging) form of Bossishness, and his at first gentle but increasingly insistent nagging about this putative paper disturbed us both through the early months of 2004. By the end of June 2004, just as he had departed from London for the start of his proposed Sabbatical year, he raised the heat a notch more.

Folding and Unfolding: Balancing Openness and Transparency in Open Source Communities

Open source communities rely on the espoused premise of complete openness and transparency of source code and development process. Yet, openness and transparency at times need to be balanced out with moments of less open and transparent work. Through our detailed study of Linux Kernel development we build a theory that explains that transparency and openness are nuanced and changing qualities that certain developers manage as they use multiple digital technologies and create, in moments of needs, more opaque and closed digital spaces of work. We refer to these spaces as digital folds. Our paper contributes to extant literature: by providing a process theory of how transparency and openness are balanced with opacity and closure in open source communities according to the needs of the development work; by conceptualizing the nature of digital folds and their role in providing quiet spaces of work: and, by articulating how the process of digital folding and unfolding is made far more possible by select elite actors’ navigating the line between the pragmatics of coding and the accepted ideology of openness and transparency.

Negotiating open source software adoption in the UK public sector

Drawing on two case studies in the UK public sector our qualitative study explains how and why open source software has seen such a mixed response. Our narratives indicate that for both cases there was strong goodwill towards open source yet the trajectories of implementation differed widely. Drawing upon ideas of change(ing), mutability and materiality we unpack the process of adoption. The study shows that open source software has certain facets; code, community, coordination mechanisms, license and documentation. Each facet is not stable; indeed, it is changing and mutable. This creates possibilities, potential but also recalcitrance, and barriers. The interesting point of departure of our study is how open source software — a much touted transparent and open phenomenon — is by its nuanced and layered mutability able to make the process and practices surrounding it less visible. It concludes with clear policy recommendations developing from this research that could help to make open source adoption more sustainable in the public sector.

Learning/organizing in Linux: a study of the ' spaces in between '

We assume that open source communities or collectives are somewhat organized. we also assume that such collectives are capable of learning, and indeed do learn. However, it is far more difficult to say exactly where, when and how such learning occurs, or resulting (re-)organizing happens. Drawing on Clegg et als [1] concept of learning and becoming this paper seeks to show, through a case study of the Linux discussion around version control software, how learning and organizing occur. The paper discusses the Linux communitys engagement with BitKeeper and explains aspects of its adoption. In this we address version control software as not merely a collaborative, organizing vehicle but as a part of a generative duality.

Governing open source software through coordination processes

Governance provides the authoritative framework for coordinating activities in open source development. Prior studies of open source governance have largely focused on its changing nature over time. In this work, we argue that the nature of governance varies across open source communities, and, in its evolution, multiple traces of authority may co-exist. We propose that such multiplicity can be understood by close examination of the authoritative structures embedded in coordination processes. We collected eight years of data on the coordination related to version control of the Linux kernel. Drawing on in-depth qualitative analysis, we investigate how coordination processes with different authoritative structures come together in the governance of open source software. We trace four coordination processes (autocratic clearing, oligarchic recursion, federated self-governance, and meritocratic idea-testing), each grounded in different authoritative structures (autocracy, oligarchy, federation, meritocracy) with their own form of legitimation. We offer a two-fold contribution in this paper. First, we enhance the open source governance literature by advancing a new theoretical perspective in which governance is seen as a configuration of coordination processes. Configurations give complementary support and are a source of tension and renewal. Second, we articulate a view on the conceptual relationship between governance and coordination where these concepts are understood as a duality, both working together to give rise to efficient and dynamic organizing in open source. Recognition and understanding of how authoritative structures are embedded within coordination processesEstablishing four distinct coordination processes at play in LinuxClarifying conceptually how governance is a manifestation of multiple authoritative structures in open sourceTheorizing the configurations of these four coordination processes and their shifts over timeEstablishing a theoretical relationship between coordination and governance in open source as a duality

The emergence of openness in open-source projects: the case of openEHR

The meaning of openness in open source is both intrinsically unstable and dynamic, and tends to fluctuate with time and context. We draw on a very particular open-source project primarily concerned with building rigorous clinical concepts to be used in electronic health records called openEHR. openEHR explains how openness is a concept that is purposely engaged with, and how, in this process of engagement, the very meaning of open matures and evolves within the project. Drawing on rich longitudinal data related to openEHR we theorise the evolving nature of openness and how this idea emerges through two intertwined processes of maturation and metamorphosis. While metamorphosis allows us to trace and interrogate the mutational evolution in openness, maturation analyses the small, careful changes crafted to build a very particular understanding of openness. Metamorphosis is less managed and controlled, whereas maturation is representative of highly precise work carried out in controlled form. Both processes work together in open-source projects and reinforce each other. Our study reveals that openness emerges and evolves in open-source projects where it can be understood to mean rigour; ability to participate; open implementation; and an open process. Our work contributes to a deepening in the theorisation of what it means to be an open-source project. The multiple and co-existing meanings of ‘open’ imply that open-source projects evolve in nonlinear ways where each critical meaning of openness causes a reflective questioning by the community of its continued status and existence.

Mutability and Becoming: Materializing of Public Sector Adoption of Open Source Software

Juxtaposing two local council cases of open source software adoption in the UK we highlight their differences and similarities in open source adoption and implementation. Our narratives indicate that for both cases there was strong goodwill towards open source yet the trajectories of implementation differed widely. We draw on Deleuze and Guattari’s ideas of becoming, tracing versus mapping and multiplicity to explain how becoming occurs at different speeds. Our data shows that the becoming of adoption can be both constrained and precipitated by various forms of materiality (of the assemblage of the open source ecosystem). The interesting point of departure of our study is how open source software – a much touted transparent and open phenomenon – is by its nuanced and layered mutability able to make the process and practices surrounding it less visible.