Evolution Patterns of Open-Source Software Systems and Communications

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Evolution Patterns of Open-Source Software
Systems and Communications

• Review Report
• By
• Haroon Malik

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ABSTRACT

• Open Source software (OOS) development a natural
  product evolution approach.
• Case Study of four typical OSS projects
• Border Prospective Evolution of OOS systems and
  its associated communities.
• Proposed three types of OSS classification
• Exploration-oriented,
• Utility-Oriented
• Service-Oriented.

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Open Source software

• Free Redistribution
• Source Code
• Derived Works Integrity of The Authors Source
  Code
• No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
• No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
• License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

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New Dimension

• Previous studies
• The growth of size.
• Decay of architecture and design
• Change of defect density.
• Current Approach
• Evolution of OSS along with its respective
  community.

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Natural Product Evolution
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APPROACH

• Started in January 2001 by SRA to Conducted a
  survey on current status of OSS
• Four local project were studied
• GNUwingut Project
• Linux Support project.
• SRA-PostgresSQL project
• Jun project

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The GNUWingut Project

• GNU project Develops free UNIX operating System
• GNUWingut project Helps client import GNU
  software programs on to particular hardware
  platform
• Richard Stallman Scientific knowledge to be
  shared among mankind.

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The GNUWingut Project (Contd)

• Centralized Control
• Develop Patches
• Helps client to refine patch and report them to
  GNU core team development
• Strict adhere to GNU guidelines
• Acts as intermediate in couture barrier.

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The Linux Support Project

• Supports Linux bazaar style with decentralized
  control.
• Identify and solve problem in course of using
  Linux.
• Apply fix to existing source code
• Do not contribute to the community

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The SRA-PostgreSQL Project

• Originally Developed as Research Prototype.
• Internationalization
• Bug fixes and patches

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The JUN Project

• Distribution of Jun Library
• Deals with the software that has been developed
  in house
• Contribution is from small group
• Strictly managed by single project leader

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Psychiatry

• General framework is required to manipulate the
  nature of evaluation in OSS project.
• The frame work should address roles of OSS
  community members
• The frame work should be able to depict the OSS
  community structure.

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Roles of Community Members
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Community Structure

• No direct association of community member roles
  with social attributes
• Balanced composition of roles
• Unique community structure is determined by the
  nature and the its member population

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Four OSS (Roles and structure of communities)

• GNU Systems
• Project Leader
• Helped by Core members.
• Makes Most decisions.
• Active Developer
• Trusted by project leader.
• Contribute own code, Improve peripheral
  developers code and are bug fixer.

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Four OSS (Roles and structure of communities)
(Contd)

• Recommend code to Project leader
• Large numbers Readers exists in GNU community
• They also acts as passive users.
• Linux
• One project leader (Linus Torvalds)
• Few core members responsible for development of
  subsystem

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Four OSS (Roles and structure of communities)
(Contd)

• Many Active developers.
• Huge volume of passive user.
• PostgreSQL
• No single project leader.
• Six core members.
• 30 Active developers (major development team).
• Inclusion of new features require voting by core
  members.

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Four OSS (Roles and structure of communities)
(Contd)

• Community members are mostly passive users and
  Bug Reporter.
• Few Readers and extremely low volume of Bug
  Fixer.
• Leader of SRA PostgreSQL project is Active
  Developer.
• Other SRA members work as Peripheral Developers.

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Four OSS (Roles and structure of communities)
(Contd)

• JUN
• Project leader SRA employee
• Many other employee work as Core Members.
• Few Bug Reporters exists in community
• Most members are passive user with exception of
  few as readers

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Evolution of Systems
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Evolution of Communities

• Evolution of an OSS community is brought by the
  role changes of its members.
• Evolution of OSS community is determined by two
  factors
• Existence of motivated members
• Social Mechanism of the community

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Classification of OSS Projects

• Exploration-oriented OSS
• GNU and JUN falls in to this category.
• Quality requirement of this class is very high
• Once, released becomes learning source for
  thousands.
• Must be developed and maintained by expert
  programmers such as project leaders.
• Community members mostly collaborate with leader
  as reviews and testers

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Classification of OSS Projects (Contd)

• Utility-Oriented OSS
• Linux falls in to this classification (excluding
  Linux kernel).
• Consists of many relative independent programs.
• Mostly developed from scratch.
• Mostly targeted to solve individual or small
  group needs.
• Evolution pattern is tournament style.

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Classification of OSS Projects (Contd)

• Service-Oriented OSS
• PostgreSQL marks this class.
• Population of stakeholders is much larger then
  that of Community.
• Conservative against evolutionary and rapid
  changes.
• Changes are made in council style.

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Classification of OSS Projects (Contd)
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Evolution Pattern of OSS projects
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• Thank You.