[ox-en] PhD position on the governance of open source communities
- From: Geert Lovink <geert xs4all.nl>
- Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:21:11 +0100
Opening: PhD position at the Delft University of Technology
Topic: The governance of open source communities
Position: School of Organization & Management, Faculty of Technology,
Policy and Management at the Delft, University of Technology
The Department of Policy, Organization and Management has an opening
for a full-time PhD student. The student will be doing research on open
source communities.
The topic
Open source communities are groups of sometimes hundreds if not
thousands of individuals with different interests, backgrounds and
motives. Many of these people are volunteers who are not paid to
participate in the communities. Furthermore, many never get to see each
other in real life. They meet virtually, on the Internet. Yet they are
able to collectively develop software that is highly complex, that has
proven to work and that is viewed as a viable alternative in today's
software market.
As a consequence of their success, more and more organizations are
attracted to open source communities and they start to adopt open
source software and/or become involved in open source communities. With
this increased attention, the dependency of society on open source
software has dramatically increased in recent years. With this
increasing dependency, the need to understand open source communities
has become increasingly important.
Much research has focused on the reasons why individuals and companies
participate in open source communities. It seems like there is some
level of consensus among researchers as to what the most important
motives are. Also, much research has been done on collaboration and
coordination in open source communities. Yet, we are looking for a PhD
student who has an interest in and wants to perform research on topics
that are positioned within this latter research field.
Although, much research has been performed on the organization of open
source communities, there are still many questions left unanswered. For
instance: ?What is the role of the internet in the communication
between developers?? What are the effects of the voting system in
communities, like Apache? Is there an optimal size of an open source
community and how can we measure this? How should we measure the
performance of an open source community?
Next to research on the communities as such, the student will be asked
to analyze the interplay between public and private sector
organizations and open source communities. Questions that are relevant
are for instance: ?how should organizations manage their relationship
with open source communities?? In what ways can businesses make money
from open source software? What should be the attitude of public
organizations towards open source software and open source communities?
In the first year, the student will frequently interact and collaborate
with his/her supervisors to identify a more-specified topic within this
broad spectrum of possible topics. There are, however, a number of
restrictions to this freedom:
* The topic will have to be on the interplay between organization &
management and ICT.
* The topic has to be novel.
We offer
The PhD student will work in a very challenging and exciting work
environment. Some of the characteristics:
* He/she will fit into an existing research group with a long tradition
in research projects that are on the interplay between technology and
management.
* He/she will work in close collaboration with a number of
fellow-researchers who are actively involved in research on open source
communities
* The Delft, University of Technology has excellent working conditions.
The student will earn a salary of around ? 2.000 a month. More detailed
information will follow.
Candidate
The candidate should have earned his/her Masters degree. The candidate
should also have an interest in the interplay between ICT and
organization & management. Important is that the student should be able
to reflect on broader managerial issues. Previous experience with open
source communities is an advantage, but not a requirement. The student
should have an interest in and be willing to conduct research with
methods of both a quantitative as well as qualitative nature.
The working language for the thesis will be English. Skills in English
writing and talking are a prerequisite. A working competence in Dutch
would be an advantage. Facilities will be offered to improve language
skills early in the project.
Next to research and writing the dissertation, the student is expected
to participate in the activities of the department. This means, he/she
will have to do some teaching and publish their (preliminary) findings
in (inter-)national journals and books.
Deadline: your applications should be received at or before February
16, 2006.
Interviews with candidates are scheduled to take place in the last
weeks of February and first weeks of March in 2006.
Probable start: April 1, 2006
Inquiries
Ruben van Wendel de Joode
rubenw tbm.tudelft.nl
[PHONE NUMBER REMOVED](0)15-2781105
Applications
More information will follow.
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de