%0 Journal Article %J MIS Quarterly %D 2014 %T Collaboration through superposition: How the IT artifact as an object of collaboration affords technical interdependence without organizational interdependence %A James Howison %A Kevin Crowston %X This paper develops a theory of collaboration through superposition: the process of depositing separate layers on top of each other over time. The theory is developed in a study of development of community-based Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS), through a research arc of discovery (participant observation), replication (two archival case studies) and formalization (a model of developer choices). The theory explains two key findings: 1) the overwhelming majority of work is accomplished with only a single programmer working on a task and 2) when tasks appear too large for an individual they are more likely to be deferred until they are easier, rather than being undertaken through structured teamwork. It is theorized that this way of organizing is key to successful open collaboration where the IT artifact is the object of collaboration, because it allows the co-production of technically interdependent artifacts through motivationally interdependent work. The affordances of software as an object of collaboration are used as a framework to analyze efforts to learn from FLOSS in other domains of work and in the IS function of for-profit organizations. %B MIS Quarterly %V 38 %P 29-50 %8 3/2104 %U http://misq.org/collaboration-through-open-superposition.html %N 1 %1 R&R at MISQ %R 10.25300/MISQ/2014/38.1.02 %> https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CollaborationThroughSuperposition-WorkingPaper.pdf %0 Conference Paper %B 2nd International Workshop on Socio-Technical Congruence, ICSE %D 2009 %T Coordination without discussion? Socio-technical congruence and Stigmergy in Free and Open Source Software projects %A Bolici, Francesco %A James Howison %A Kevin Crowston %K Coordination %K FLOSS %B 2nd International Workshop on Socio-Technical Congruence, ICSE %C Vancouver, Canada %8 19 May %U http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhncd3jd_405fzt842gv %> https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Coordination%20without%20discussion%3F%20Socio-technical%20congruence.pdf %0 Book Section %B Human-Computer Interaction in Management Information Systems %D 2006 %T Coordination theory: A ten-year retrospective %A Kevin Crowston %A Rubleske, Joe %A James Howison %E Zhang, P. %E Galletta, D. %K Coordination %X Since the initial publication in 1994, Coordination Theory has been referenced in nearly 300 journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and theses. Coordination Theory provides an approach to a core problem in HCI: analyzing group work to suggest alternative approaches involving computer support. Coordination Theory suggests identifying the dependencies between the tasks the different group members are carrying out and the coordination mechanisms the group use to coordinate their work and then considering alternative mechanisms. This chapter will analyze the contribution of this body of research to determine how Coordination Theory has been used for user task analysis and modelling for HCI. Issues that will be addressed include: 1)how the theory has been applied; 2) factors that led to the success of the theory; and 3)identification of areas needing further research. %B Human-Computer Interaction in Management Information Systems %I M. E. Sharpe, Inc. %P 120-138 %G eng %> https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CT%20Review%20to%20distribute.pdf %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proceedings of the 39th Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-39) %D 2006 %T Core and periphery in Free/Libre and Open Source software team communications %A Kevin Crowston %A Kangning Wei %A Li, Qing %A James Howison %K FLOSS %X The concept of the core group of developers is important and often discussed in empirical studies of FLOSS projects. This paper examines the question, “how does one empirically distinguish the core?” Being able to identify the core members of a FLOSS development project is important because many of the processes necessary for successful projects likely involve core members differently than peripheral members, so analyses that mix the two groups will likely yield invalid results. We compare 3 analysis approaches to identify the core: the named list of developers, a Bradford’s law analysis that takes as the core the most frequent contributors and a social network analysis of the interaction pattern that identifies the core in a core-and-periphery structure. We apply these measures to the interactions around bug fixing for 116 SourceForge projects. The 3 techniques identify different individuals as core members; examination of which individuals are identified leads to suggestions for refining the measures. All 3 measures though suggest that the core of FLOSS projects is a small fraction of the total number of contributors. %B Proceedings of the 39th Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-39) %C Kaua'i, Hawai'i, January %G eng %> https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CoreAndPeripheryInFreeLibre.pdf %0 Conference Paper %B Symposium on Mining Software Repositories %D 2005 %T Collaboration Using OSSmole: A repository of FLOSS data and analyses %A Conklin, Megan S. %A James Howison %A Kevin Crowston %X This paper introduces a collaborative project OSSmole designed to collect, share, and store comparable data and analyses of free, libre and open source software (FLOSS) development for research purposes. The project is designed to be a clearinghouse for data from the ongoing collection and analysis efforts of many disparate research groups. A collaborative data repository will reduce duplication and promote compatibility both across sources of FLOSS data and across research groups and analyses. The primary objective of OSSmole is to mine FLOSS source code repositories and provide the resulting data and summary analyses as open source products. However, the OSSmole data model additionally supports donated raw and summary data from a variety of open source researchers and other software repositories. The paper first outlines current difficulties with the typical quantitative FLOSS research process and uses these to develop requirements for such a collaborative data repository. Finally, the design of the OSSmole system is presented, as well as examples of current research and analyses using OSSmole. %B Symposium on Mining Software Repositories %C St. Louis %8 05/2005 %G eng %> https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CollaborationUsingOSSmole.pdf %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) %D 2005 %T Coordination of Free/Libre Open Source Software development %A Kevin Crowston %A Kangning Wei %A Li, Qing %A Eseryel, U. Yeliz %A James Howison %K Coordination %K FLOSS %X The apparent success of free/libre open source software (FLOSS) development projects such as Linux, Apache, and many others has raised the question, what lessons from FLOSS development can be transferred to mainstream software development? In this paper, we use coordination theory to analyze coordination mechanisms in FLOSS development and compare our analysis with existing literature on coordination in proprietary software development. We examined developer interaction data from three active and successful FLOSS projects and used content analysis to identify the coordination mechanisms used by the participants. We found that there were similarities between the FLOSS groups and the reported practices of the proprietary project in the coordination mechanisms used to manage task-task dependencies. However, we found clear differences in the coordination mechanisms used to manage task-actor dependencies. While published descriptions of proprietary software development involved an elaborate system to locate the developer who owned the relevant piece of code, we found that “self-assignment” was the most common mechanism across three FLOSS projects. This coordination mechanism is consistent with expectations for distributed and largely volunteer teams. We conclude by discussing whether these emergent practices can be usefully transferred to mainstream practice and indicating directions for future research. %B Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) %C Las Vegas, NV, USA, December %G eng %> https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Coordination%20of%20Free%20Libre%20Open%20Source%20Software%20Development.pdf %> https://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CoordinationFreeLibreOSSDevSlides.pdf