FOSS Development and The FOSS Community

(5) FOSS Development and the FOSS
Community
FOSS and the FOSS Communication
community FOSS projects are
FOSS is closely-linked to supported by
activities in the FOSS communication
community between development
participants
Development structure
How FOSS project FOSS developers
works? FLOSS survey: FOSS
How to participate in developers on-line
FOSS projects? survey, conducted from
2002 to 2004
Topics related to FOSS
development
An Introduction to Free/Open-Source Software Copyright © 2005,2006, Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC) All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2005,2006, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 121
Copyright © 2008, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. All Rights Reserved.
FOSS and the FOSS
community
FOSS Distribution: Community to Users
Japan FOSS promotion forum's working group made a
detailed comment on FOSS distribution from
communities to users
Types of FOSS communities

How developers and users gather to form their
community?
User communities
Growth of mutual support culture due to a lack of
vendor support
The next issue is to make a good relationship between
user community and developer community
FOSS Distribution: Development
Community to Users
Report prepared by WG of Japan FOSS Forum
Findings of Support Infrastructure Working Group
Describes mechanism for FOSS distribution from
development community to users
Published: February 10, 2005
Contents of report
GNU/Linux distributions: Main FOSS distribution route to
users
Organizations central to GNU/Linux distributions
Development community; user support options and range of
support
Summary and major points to consider for FOSS
deployment
Member corporations of Support Infrastructure WG:
NEC, NTT Comware, NTT Data, OSDL, NS Solutions,
Turbolinux, Nihon Unisys, Novell, Nomura Research
Institute, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Miracle Linux, Red Hat
Types of Communities
Developer communities
Communities formed around developer groups
Major FOSS projects form large-scale communities
Members take on various roles
User communities
User communities formed for each application
Cooperative role to address lack of information
Use mailing lists and message boards
Local Linux User Groups (LUGs)

Scores of LUGs across Japan
User Communities
Prolific number of user groups, preceded by
name of FOSS
e. g. Top 10 results of Google search using Japanese
keyword User-kai (June 2005):
Japan PHP User Group
Japan MySQL Users Group
Samba Users Group Japan
Japan PostgreSQL Users Group
ja: Japan: OpenOffice.org Japan Users Group
Japan Apache Users Group
Japan Zope User Group
Japan GNOME Users Group
Japan UNIX Society
Python Japan User's Group
Following results: User groups for KDE, Mathematica,
Analog, Snort, SELinux, Firebird, etc.
Development Structure
Cathedral and Bazaar-style development
Comparison between two types of development
method
Bazaar-style development was spotlighted starting
with great success of Linux
Roles of project members
Understanding the roles of various project members
Development resources
Services and businesses that support FOSS
development
Examples of the service
Project repositories
Getting involved in projects
Management of FOSS projects
Cathedral and Bazaar-Style
Development
Eric Raymond’s 1997 essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/
Cathedral model
GNU described as example of cathedral development, predating
Linux
Note: Cathedral model is not synonymous with development style
of proprietary software
Only specific participants involved in development
No releases until specific results are achieved
Bazaar model
Linux development used as example of bazaar-style development
Open group of participants; respect for individuality; talented
coordinator manages flow of project
Releases any time in mid-development; basic notion of “fast
and frequent releases”
Bazaar-style development since used extensively for FOSS
development projects
Roles of Project Members
Project leader: Authority to direct project
Core members: Authority to change source code
Project participants
Regular developers: Provide feedback about new features,
enhancements and bug fixes
Testers (advanced users): Test software and report bugs for
each release
Document authors: Create documents for general users and
developers
Other roles:
Resource development (non-programming)
Evangelism, PR (mailing list and/or Web site management)
Financial supporters and providers of development resources
Supporters for offline activities
Development Resources
Project hosting services
Free/Open-source project repositories
SourceForge.net
BerliOS
FSF/UNESCO Free Software Directory
savannah.gnu.org
Software directory sites, software search engines

FreshMeat.net
Rpmfind.net, others
Other development resources

www.koders.com
SourceForge.net
Operated by OSTG,
Inc. (Open Source
Technology Group)
http://sourceforge.net
Services
Project Web site hosting
CVS repository
Bug tracking system
Communication tools
Others services
Japanese version
SourceForge.jp
BerliOS, Free Software Directory
http://www.berlios.de/ http://directory.fsf.org/
FreshMeat.net, Rpmfind.net
http://freshmeat.net/ http://rpmfind.net/
Getting Involved in Projects
Find software that implements functions you want
Number of projects available online is nearly unlimited
Debug or extend functionality of software

If you find a function that doesn’t work or is missing
Take full advantage of released source code
From feeding back your results to joining a

development team
Get involved to advance software science and the FOSS
community
Find existing projects through a project repository

Make active use of development resources
Tips for Getting Involved
Honest and factual reporting
Important to provide objective data when reporting bugs
Reproducibility
Configuration, what you were doing, and what happened
Include error messages, logs
Code you contribute is not just for you

Observe certain courtesies
Adhere to coding rules
Include comments so others can read and understand your
code
Include a description
Never send just your code (worst thing you can do)
Use simple and concise sentences to describe your code
Project Management
Personal relationships are critical
Worldwide development
Enables round-the-clock development: requires use of
various communication tools
Progress of project accelerated by contributions from others
Requires communication skills
Requires proper assignment of roles based on contributions
to development
Share source code through the Internet
SourceForge.net lists 1,000,000 developers and 100,000
projects
Accelerate development through frequent releases and quick
revisions
Does not ensure quick completion
Ensure high quality and strong security through “eyes of
many”
Topics Related to FOSS Development
Agile development and similar methodologies

Some similarities are there between agile
development and FOSS development
Stable versions and development versions

Two versions are simultaneously released: stable
version for average users and development version for
developer and progressive users
Project forks
There might be cases that project is divided by two
opposing points of view about its direction
Source code tree is branched at some point
Advantages and Downsides of FOSS

development
Agile Development and Similar
Methodologies
Twelve core practices of Extreme Programming (XP):
1. Planning Game Continually plan in small units
2. Small Releases Short release cycles
3. Metaphor Use metaphors for ease of understanding
4. Simple Design Keep the design simple
5. Testing Prioritize testing in program development
6. Design Improvement (originally: Refactoring) Actively review code
7. Pair Programming Programmers write code in pairs
8. Collective Code Ownership Make all codes accessible to every programmer
9. Continuous Integration Continually test and keep the software running
10.Sustainable Pace (originally: 40-hour Week) Overwork leads to lower productivity
11.Whole Customer (originally: On-site Customer) Incorporate users into the team
12.Coding Standards Program out of respect for coding conventions
2, 8, 9, 12 are also important in FOSS development

However, No. 1, 3, 7 and 10 are difficult to implement under
FOSS development
Stable Versions and Development
Versions
Bazaar model
Policy of fast and frequent releases
Conservative users inconvenienced by trial-and-error
approach to new features
Releases separated into stable versions and
development versions
Development versions: Source code heavily modified
For developers and cutting-edge users
Addition of new features
Odd version numbers: 1.1->1.3->1.5…
Stable versions: Changes kept to minimum
For general users
Incorporates bug fixes, security patches, etc.
Well-received features sometimes back-ported from
development versions without waiting for major update
Even version numbers: 1.0->1.2->1.4…
Project Forks
On rare occasions, projects can branch off
Examples of project forks
XFree86 -> X.Org
Emacs -> XEmacs
Sometimes projects fork and merge again
Emacs -> Mule -> Emacs
GCC -> EGCS (Experimental/Enhanced GNU Compiler
System) -> GCC
FOSS helps to maintain sustainability of

development but also allows project forks to occur
x-1.0 x-1.1 x-1.2 x-1.3 x-2.0 x-2.1

y-1.0 y-1.1
Advantages of Free/Open-Source
Development
Fundamental advantages of program
development on FOSS platforms
Low cost (although Free Software does not mean free of
charge)
Comes with source code
High scalability (everything from embedded to mainframe)
Use existing Unix technology
Ability to use Unix technology and existing software assets
on low cost hardware (PC-compatible machines)
Increasing availability of development tools for
various applications
Mission critical fields
Image processing, multimedia, science and technology
computing, etc.
Embedded applications
Risks of Free/Open-Source
Development
Shortage of FOSS engineers
Demand outstripping supply (both for user enterprises and system
integrators)
Urgent need for human resources development programs, training
environments, training materials and university education
Retraining of Unix engineers offers shortcut
Lack of guarantees and support
Shift needed from volunteer development to enterprise support
Support issue highly dependent on technical capabilities of user
company
Lack of experience
Newness of FOSS development model
Knowledge of how to collaborate with development community
still to come
Challenge of finding balance for securing intellectual property
rights
Communication
Who develops software?
Communication is critically important
Communication tools
On-line communication utilizing various tools
What kind of tools are used?
Pros and cons of on-line communication tools

Evaluating the pros-and-cons of each tools
Off-line communication
Importance of off-line communication
Participating in conferences
Communicate actively via off-line meeting
Communication Tools
Methods of online communication
E-mail exchange between developers
Mailing lists administered by project
Developer mailing list: xxx-devel@hoge.fuga.org
User mailing list: yyy-uers@foo.bar.baz
Message board on project Web site
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and other chat systems
Wiki, developer blogs
Conventional tools to supplement online
communication
Telephone, fax, etc.
English is the universal language of communication
Overall communication skills more important than English
ability
Online Communication Methods: Pros
and Cons
Pros Cons
Familiar user interface Not suited to discussion
E-mail
between multiple persons
Familiar user interface Redundancy from copies
Mailing list
of all messages
Message Accessible, shows flow of Discussion tends to
board discussion become derailed
IRC and other Allows for instantaneous Not suited to in-depth
chat systems discussion discussions
Emphasis on Comparatively static
Wiki
documentation medium
Blogger can assert own Not designed for
Blog
opinions discussion
Offline Communication
Power of offline communication
Significance of face-to-face communication
Non-verbal communication
Body and hand language
Expression, tone of voice, general mood, etc
Sometimes accelerates development through kinship
and understanding personalities of others
Limits of online communication felt during:
Eruption of flame wars
Observance or non-observance of netiquette
Difference between written and spoken words
Difficult to convey subtle nuances through writing
Could be that social gatherings are most
important
Participating in Conferences
FOSS-related global conferences
Libre Software Meeting/ Rencontres Mondiales du
Logiciel Libre (France)
LinuxTag (Germany)
Ottawa Linux Symposium (Canada)
Many others such as DebConf, BSDCon, etc.
Actively interact with others
Advantages
Get word out about own project
Get advice about software design and implementation
Could lead to cooperation with developer teams
Mutual exchange between developers and users
Build personal network, exchange information, etc.
FOSS Developers
FLOSS Surveys
Developer background and Involvement
When FOSS developers get involved in their
development?
Reason for getting/staying involved

What is the reason to participate in FOSS activities?
Type of involvement
What is their involvement in FOSS projects?
Global involvement
Realities that global communications on FOSS activities
Compensation
Do they receive money in return for their work?
FLOSS Surveys
What is a FLOSS survey?
Provides insight into conditions of FOSS developers
Analysis-based online survey
Free/Libre/Open Source Software online survey

FLOSS Survey (2002)
Conducted by Maastricht Economic Research Institute on
Innovation and Technology (MERIT)
FLOSS-US Survey (2003)
Conducted by Stanford Institute for Economic Policy
Research (SIEPR)
FLOSS-JP Survey, FLOSS-ASIA Survey (2003-2004)
Conducted by Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (MRI)
Commissioned by Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry (METI)
Free/Libre/Open Source Software
Japanese Developers Online Survey
FLOSS-JP Survey
Survey aimed squarely at FOSS developers
Period: September 1, 2003 to November 1, 2003
Online survey and questionnaires distributed at conferences
Valid responses: 547
Survey content
FOSS/FS experience, level of involvement, personal profile
Initial impetus for getting involved in FOSS/FS development,
reasons for staying involved, personal views
Income from FOSS/Free Software development, sponsorship
income, etc.
For more about the survey, visit the URL below:

http://FOSS.mri.co.jp/floss-jp/
Developer Background and
Involvement
Personal background
Late 20s/early 30s, mostly male
Majority possess undergraduate or master’s degree
Many software engineers, programmers, students and
university instructors
Position on FOSS or Free Software

Identify with FOSS: 43.7%
Identify with Free Software: 26.7%
Do not care: 29.6%
Time spent on development
(per week)
Two-thirds spend 5 hours or less
Reason for Getting Involved
Initial reason for getting involved in project
Released program I wrote myself: 36.5%
Sent in patch: 16.2%
Exchanged e-mail with author: 10.7%
Replied to user’s question on mailing list: 10.5%
Reported bug: 10.5%
Reasons for Staying Involved
Own motivation for continued development
(multiple responses allowed)
Learn new skills: 64.9%
Share knowledge and skills: 48.9%
Solve problems not possible with proprietary software:
29.2%
Improve FOSS/FS from other developers: 24.9%
Realize new idea for software: 22.5%
Two-part question
Own motivation
Opinion on motivation of others
Type of Involvement
Main types of involvement (multiple responses
allowed)
Develop main functions: 52.1%
Write bug fixes: 36.0%
Write patches: 33.6%
Testing: 20.9%
Document translation: 14.3%
Document preparation: 14.0%
Packaging: 12.5%
Localization: 10.8%
Project management: 10.2%
User support: 9.8%
Global Involvement
37.7% involved in global development
community
Mainly active in Japanese community: 62.3%
Mainly active in global community: 16.1%
Involved in both: 21.6%
English ability
68.3% feel own ability is limited
English ability and level of activity
Not necessarily related
Depends on enthusiasm and patience
Compensation
Only 26.8% of developers receive direct income
from FOSS activities
41.2% have profited indirectly from FOSS activities
Hired or found new job due to FOSS development
experience: 9.6%
Data indicating social recognition as technical
experience
Awareness of involvement in FOSS
development
School/employer not aware of own involvement in
FOSS: 40.8%
Preference: Desire to be involved in FOSS
development as part of work

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(5) FOSS Development and the FOSS

Types of FOSS communities

Local Linux User Groups (LUGs)

Software directory sites, software search engines

Other development resources

Debug or extend functionality of software

From feeding back your results to joining a

Find existing projects through a project repository

Code you contribute is not just for you

Agile development and similar methodologies

Stable versions and development versions

Advantages and Downsides of FOSS

2, 8, 9, 12 are also important in FOSS development

FOSS helps to maintain sustainability of

x-1.0 x-1.1 x-1.2 x-1.3 x-2.0 x-2.1

Pros and cons of on-line communication tools

Reason for getting/staying involved

Free/Libre/Open Source Software online survey

For more about the survey, visit the URL below:

Position on FOSS or Free Software

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