Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Social-technical network effects in open source software communities: understanding the impacts of dependency networks on project success

Social-technical network effects in open source software communities: understanding the impacts... To better understand the success of an open source software (OSS) project, this study aims to examine the role of social dependency networks (i.e. social and technical dependencies) in online communities.Design/methodology/approach This study focuses on dependencies using three network metrics – degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality – in developer and module networks. A longitudinal analysis from the projects hosted at Sourceforge.net is conducted to examine the effects of social and technical networks on the success of OSS projects. To address our research questions, we have constructed research models to investigate the social network effects in developer networks, the technical network effects in module networks, and the social-technical network effects in both types of networks.Findings The results reveal nonlinear relationships between degree centrality in both social and technical networks and OSS success, highlighting the importance of a moderate level of degree centrality in team structure and software architecture. Meanwhile, a moderate level of betweenness centrality and a lower level of closeness centrality between developers lead to a higher chance of OSS project success.Originality/value This study is the first attempt to consider the network metrics in both module networks of the technical sub-system and developer networks of the social sub-system to better understand their influences on project success. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Information Technology and People Emerald Publishing

Social-technical network effects in open source software communities: understanding the impacts of dependency networks on project success

Wu, Jiang; Huang, Xiao; Wang, Bin
Information Technology and People , Volume 36 (2): 21 – Mar 21, 2023
Download PDF
21 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/social-technical-network-effects-in-open-source-software-communities-1ib2wqUHg1

References (77)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0959-3845
DOI
10.1108/itp-09-2021-0684
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

To better understand the success of an open source software (OSS) project, this study aims to examine the role of social dependency networks (i.e. social and technical dependencies) in online communities.Design/methodology/approach This study focuses on dependencies using three network metrics – degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality – in developer and module networks. A longitudinal analysis from the projects hosted at Sourceforge.net is conducted to examine the effects of social and technical networks on the success of OSS projects. To address our research questions, we have constructed research models to investigate the social network effects in developer networks, the technical network effects in module networks, and the social-technical network effects in both types of networks.Findings The results reveal nonlinear relationships between degree centrality in both social and technical networks and OSS success, highlighting the importance of a moderate level of degree centrality in team structure and software architecture. Meanwhile, a moderate level of betweenness centrality and a lower level of closeness centrality between developers lead to a higher chance of OSS project success.Originality/value This study is the first attempt to consider the network metrics in both module networks of the technical sub-system and developer networks of the social sub-system to better understand their influences on project success.

Journal

Information Technology and People – Emerald Publishing

Published: Mar 21, 2023

Keywords: Open source software community; Dependency networks; Network effect; Social network analysis; Social-technical system

There are no references for this article.