Understanding participation and corporatization in service of diversity in free/libre and open source software development projects

IF 3.7 2区计算机科学 Q1 COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Journal of Systems and Software Pub Date : 2024-07-26 DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2024.112163

Olivia B. Newton , Stephen M. Fiore

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Issues associated with a lack of diversity and inclusivity persist in the domain of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) development and in software development generally. Researchers have suggested that the corporatization of FLOSS affords opportunities for creating an inclusive workforce. To understand the potential for firms to increase diversity, we conducted a mixed-methods study of diversity and corporate engagement in FLOSS projects. We integrate the results of a qualitative survey and a big data analysis to understand developer perceptions of corporate engagement and its association with gender and geographic diversity. In the qualitative component, we collected responses from 64 FLOSS contributors to elicit their perspectives on corporate engagement. In the quantitative component, we analyzed GitHub data from 38 projects and 9,990 contributors to investigate differences in participation and diversity based on corporate engagement. We find that contributors vary across dimensions that can inform diversity interventions: stances toward corporations and orientation towards individual/collective benefits. Our results suggest that corporate engagement may limit a project's contributor base and geographic diversity. Yet, organizations subsidizing FLOSS have opportunities to increase access to projects which would benefit diversity. This research serves to identify individual and organizational factors which may harm and help diversity initiatives.

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理解自由/自由和开源软件开发项目中的参与和公司化以促进多样性

在自由/自由和开放源码软件（FLOSS）开发领域以及整个软件开发领域，与缺乏多样性和包容性相关的问题一直存在。研究人员认为，FLOSS 的公司化为创建一支具有包容性的员工队伍提供了机会。为了了解企业提高多样性的潜力，我们对 FLOSS 项目中的多样性和企业参与进行了一项混合方法研究。我们整合了定性调查和大数据分析的结果，以了解开发人员对企业参与度的看法及其与性别和地域多样性的关联。在定性部分，我们收集了 64 位 FLOSS 贡献者的反馈，以了解他们对企业参与的看法。在定量部分，我们分析了来自 38 个项目和 9990 名贡献者的 GitHub 数据，以调查基于企业参与度的参与度和多样性差异。我们发现，贡献者在不同维度上存在差异，而这些维度可以为多样性干预措施提供参考：对企业的立场以及对个人/集体利益的取向。我们的结果表明，企业参与可能会限制项目的贡献者基础和地域多样性。然而，为自由和开放源码软件提供补贴的组织有机会增加对项目的访问，这将有利于多样性。这项研究有助于识别可能会损害或帮助多元化计划的个人和组织因素。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Systems and Software 工程技术-计算机：理论方法

CiteScore

8.60

自引率

5.70%

发文量

193

审稿时长

16 weeks

期刊介绍： The Journal of Systems and Software publishes papers covering all aspects of software engineering and related hardware-software-systems issues. All articles should include a validation of the idea presented, e.g. through case studies, experiments, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: •Methods and tools for, and empirical studies on, software requirements, design, architecture, verification and validation, maintenance and evolution •Agile, model-driven, service-oriented, open source and global software development •Approaches for mobile, multiprocessing, real-time, distributed, cloud-based, dependable and virtualized systems •Human factors and management concerns of software development •Data management and big data issues of software systems •Metrics and evaluation, data mining of software development resources •Business and economic aspects of software development processes The journal welcomes state-of-the-art surveys and reports of practical experience for all of these topics.