[ox-en] software development as a social model (Modified by Geert Lovink)
- From: Jon Anderson <jwa acm.org>
- Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2006 18:40:53 -0400
* Linux Insider (10/02/06) Lyman, Jay *
Computer science researchers at the University of California Davis will
use a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to examine
the development of open source systems such as the Apache Web server,
PosterSQL, and the Python scripting language. The suspicion is that
open source systems succeed where commercial proprietary programs fail
because they avoid the developmental process where the speed of
production is determined by the slowest contributor. The case of
Mozilla suggests that the modularity implemented by open source systems
increase volunteerism, because anyone can contribute at any time. UC
Davis lead researcher and computer science professor Premkuma Devanbu
says, "The belief in the open source software community is that open
source turns on all the available brain power, full blast, on every
problem, challenge, or opportunity." The purpose of the study is to put
such ideas to the test, in order to get empirical evidence. Many stress
that open source development benefits from the fact that contributors
are not motivated by getting paid, and can choose what they work on. As
no meetings and the lowest level of synchronization are necessary when
using open source software, development can occur at parallel levels
simultaneously, rather than requiring each step in the process to occur
sequentially. The researchers will monitor emails, message boards, and
bug reports for insights into what makes open source development
projects successful. Devanbu says the case of Linux shows that
*modularity improves the quality of the software developed, and that
"good design allows implementation to proceed with maximum parallelism
and minimum synchronization and coordination."*
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