Reprogramming Open Source Ecosystems – case study of MeeGo

Presentation given in OSS2011 in Brazil. This used to be my PhD Thesis research, which was buried.

Transcript

1. Reprogramming Open Source Ecosystems – case study of MeeGo Jarkko Moilanen (M.Soc.Sc) Information Studies and Interactive Media University of Tampere, Finland
2. Purpose Describe Open Source Ecosystem from developer viewpoint Describe how power is used in Open Source Ecosystems (development viewpoint)
3. Theoretical background Figure 1. Forms of power. Adopted from Castells, M. (2009) Communication power, Oxford University Press, USA
4. Methodology (1) Prolonged observation – Both as participant member and observer (MeeGo community) Themed interviews – Interviewees are developers – Three rounds (?), 10-15 interviews each
5. Methodology (2) Interviews build around major events (crisis or otherwise) – Example: 11/2 Nokia strategy change
6. Interview themes MeeGo as an Open Source Ecosystem (OSE) – What is structure & ideal composition of OSE? – What are the roles of different participants/partners? Power in MeeGo Ecosystem – What kind of power structures & groups are there? – Is management open and transparent? If not, what could be done better? – What kind of communication is used? – methods, amount and content
7. Current phase First interview round finished August 2011 – Build around 11/2 changes – 11 interviews, each about 1 hour. – Transcription in progress Project CORAL as spin-off Ecosystem is again in a cross-road, possible to to new interviews (with same interviewees) in near future.
8. Open Questions How to analyze (with which tools and methods) interview material? – The amount of interview material in hours will be relatively huge – Interviews are partly in English, partly in Finnish How many events/crisis situations is enough?