Sebastian Draxler

Supporting the Collaborative Appropriation of an Open Software Ecosystem

Since the beginning of CSCW there was an intense interest for research on workplace design using tailorable applications and sharing customizations. However, in the meantime the forms of production, distribution, configuration and appropriation of software have changed fundamentally. In order to reflect these developments, we enlarge the topic of discussion beyond customizing single applications, but focusing on how people design their workplaces making use of software ecosystems. We contribute to understand the new phenomenon from within the users’ local context. By empirically studying the Eclipse software ecosystem and its appropriation, we show the improved flexibility users achieve at designing their workplaces. Further the uncovered practices demonstrate, why design strategies like mass-customization are a bad guiding principle as they just focus on the individual user. In contrast we outline an alternative design methodology based on existing CSCW approaches, but also envision where the workplace design in the age of software ecosystems has to go beyond.

Supporting the social context of technology appropriation: on a synthesis of sharing tools and tool knowledge

There is an increasing spread of flexible software applications that can be modified by adding components (sometimes called plug-ins or add-ons). A popular example in the software development domain is Eclipse, a flexible development environment that can be extended with literally thousands of different plug-ins. However, searching, installing and configuring new plug-ins requires complex overhead work that is only weakly addressed by existing support mechanisms. Recent research has highlighted the related practices of learning about new plug-ins and tailoring software tools as being highly cooperative, situated, socially embedded, and often connected to particular work situations. Based on an empirical study in small software enterprises, we develop an understanding of appropriation as a social and collaborative activity. We then suggest design principles for appropriation support that are grounded in the practices we have found in the field, and present a prototypical implementation of the concept that extends existing mechanisms of sharing tools and tool-knowledge.

Appropriation of the Eclipse Ecosystem: Local Integration of Global Network Production

Eclipse and Mozilla Firefox represent a new type of open software that can be supplemented by manifold extensions, being implemented by independent software vendors and open source projects. Research on such software ecosystems shows that collaboration patterns in the software industry evolve from value chains to value nets. An often ignored side-effect of this development is a vast extent of integration work that needs to be done by users. Taking a user point of view, this paper presents an empirical study on the practices of appropriating the Eclipse ecosystem as an example of radical tailorability, based on new opportunities given by the surrounding ecosystem. We show the practices users have developed to manage the antagonism of maintaining a stable and productive working environment, while simultaneously innovating it. Based on these results, we outline different opportunities to improve flexible software by supporting cooperation among the diverse actors involved, in a network of production and consumption.

Managing software portfolios: a comparative study

Software applications that can be changed, modified and extended are nowadays pretty mainstream. But only few researchers focused on the role of the users social network for actual modifying practices and hurdles. Therefore this paper, studies in a comparative manner, how users modify software applications by using markets of existing components. We examine two popular applications: the universal tool platform Eclipse as an example for work applications and the game of World of Warcraft as an example for leisure applications. Despite the difference of the contexts, we found common patterns in collaborative actions within the social networks, that lead us to discuss the role of sharing and support for modification awareness for end users.

Keeping the Development Environment Up to Date—A Study of the Situated Practices of Appropriating the Eclipse IDE

Software engineers and developers are surrounded by highly complex software systems. What does it take to cope with these? We introduce a field study that explores the maintenance of the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment by software developers as part of their daily work. The study focuses on appropriation of the Eclipse IDE. We present an empirical view on appropriation as a means to maintain the collective ability to work. We visited seven different organizations and observed and interviewed their members. Each organization was chosen to provide an overall picture of Eclipse use throughout the industry. The results decompose the appropriation of Eclipse by software developers in organizations into four categories: learning, tailoring and discovering, as well as the cross-cutting category: collaboration. The categories are grounded in situations that provoked a need to change as well as in policies adopted for coping with this need. By discussing these categories against the background of Eclipse and its ecosystem, we want to illustrate in what ways appropriation of component- or plugin- based software is nowadays a common and highly complex challenge for Eclipse users, and how the related appropriation practices can be supported by IT systems.

Tangible and Screen-Based Interfaces for End-User Workflow Modeling

Bridging the gap between business needs and IT solutions is a major challenge in service-oriented computing, and recent research emphasizes the importance of including end users in service-based application development. An analysis of two different approaches - tangible and screen-based versions of tools - demonstrates how users can participate in the development of technical workflow models based on their perception of business processes.

Open design spaces: socially crafting interactive experiences

Engaging end-users and user communities to take an active part in the co-creation, evolution, and appropriation of modern, interactive systems has become an increasingly important issue over the last years. Bringing together existing research and experiences as well as new challenges such as long-term, large-scale, or highly distributed stakeholders has led to the notion of Open Design Spaces (ODS) to frame and reflect current developments of distributed co-design. Several, formerly often separated strands of research covering different aspects of these challenges have emerged and led to a growing community of researchers and practitioners building on concepts such as Participatory Design, Meta-Design, and End-User Development. Building on two successful predecessors on the topic with more than 50 international researchers and practitioners, the workshop at DIS 2010 focuses particularly on social aspects and community co-creation in Open Design Spaces.