The Virtual Organizational Culture of a Free Software Development

Community

Margaret S. ElliottInstitute for Software ResearchUniversity of California, Irvine

Irvine, CA 92697-3425Melliott@ics.uci.edu

3rd Workshop on Open Source Software EngineeringICSE 2003

May 3, 2003

Overview

P Research Motivation

P Research Questions and Methodology

P Research Site: GNU Enterprise

P Organizational Culture Perspective

P Virtual Organizational Culture

P Schematic Summary of GNUe Research

P Research Conclusions

P Open Questions

Research Motivation

POpen source software development projectsgrowing at a rapid rate: 50,000+ with 50 neweach day

PResearch in quantitative studies (Koch andSchneider, 2000; Mockus et al., 2000; 2002)

PFew qualitative studies (Mackenzie et al., 2002)

PSocio-technical empirical studies needed

Research Questions

PHow do free/open source developers concur overvirtual distances?

PHow does the work culture influence softwaredevelopment?

PWhat social arrangements arise that facilitateconflict management?

Research Methodology

PVirtual Ethnography of free softwaredevelopment project

PGrounded theory

PData collection of Website documentation,kernel cousins (digests), IRC archives, mailinglist archives, books on open source

PEmail and face-to-face interviews with keyGNUe contributors

Free Versus Open Source Software

PFree: Open to anyone to copy, study, modify,redistribute as free software (GPL)< “Think free speech, not free beer.”

POpen: Open to anyone to copy, study, modify,redistribute as free and proprietary software(Other licenses)

GNUe Project

PMetaproject of GNU

P International virtual community

PDeveloping free enterprise resource planning(ERP) system

GNUe Data

PCase One: Conflict over Use of Non-freesoftware tool to create graphic on GNUescreenshot for documentation

PCase Two: Conflict over use of non-free softwareto read and create documentation

Organizational Culture Perspective

PMethod for studying organization’s socialprocesses often missed in quantitative studies

PCulture as metaphor for organization

POrganizational Culture is set of sociallyestablished structures of meaning which areaccepted by its members (Ott, 1989)

Virtual Organizational Culture

PVirtual community is organizational culture

PGNUe is subculture of free software foundation(FSF)

PRichard Stallman (RMS) is founder oforganizational culture of FSF

P Integration approach to GNUe shows consensus-building social world

Virtual Organizational Culture of FreeSoftware Developers

GNU/LinuxOperating System withUtilitiesSubculture

GNU EnterpriseSubculture

GNUTelephonySubculture

Other GNU/Free SoftwareProjectsSubcultures

Virtual Organizational CulturePerspective Applied to GNUe

PBeliefs < Free Software< Freedom of Choice

PValues< Community< Cooperative Work

PNorms< Informal Management, Acceptance of Outsiders, Open

Disclosure

GNUe IRC Excerpt

<CyrilB> Hello

<CyrilB> Several images on the GNUe website seems to be madewith non-free Adobe softwares, I hope I’m wrong: it is quiteshocking. Does anybody now more on the subject?

...

<CyrilB>We should avoid using non-free software at all cost, am Iworng?

Schematic Summary of GNUe Research

Research Conclusions

PPersistence of rich organizational culture in avirtual community of free software developersbuilds and perpetuates community.

P Instant messages (IRC) important for resolvingconflicts in virtual communities.

PDebates on IRC delay work while reinforcingbeliefs, values and norms.

Open Questions

PAre cultural beliefs of FSF and free softwaremovement prevalent in most open sourcecommunities?

PAre free versus open source communitiesdrastically different in organizational form andstructure?

PCan open source communities persist without culture?

Acknowledgements

PSupported by NSF grants: #IIS-0083075; #ITR-0205679

P In collaboration with Walt Scacchi, Institute forSoftware Research and Mark Ackerman,University of Michigan.