[Discussioni] [FLOSS] UPGRADE - Vol. VI, issue no. 3, June 2005: Libre Software as A Field of Study

[Andrea Glorioso]

Cari tutti,

e` uscito l'ultimo numero di UPGRADE (European Journal for Informatics
Professionals) con  una monografia su  "Software  Libero come Campo di
Studi".

Dall'articolo di introduzione, di Jesús M. González-Barahona:

  Libre  (free, open  source) software   has  evolved during the  last
  decade  from   an obscure, marginal  phenomenon    into a relatively
  well-known,    widely    available,   extensively    used    set  of
  applications. Libre  software solutions are   even market leaders in
  some segments and are experiencing  huge growth in others.  Products
  such as OpenOffice.org,  Linux, Apache, Firefox  and many others are
  part of  the daily  experience of  many users. Companies  and public
  administrations alike  are paying more   and more attention  to  the
  benefits that libre software can provide when used extensively.

  However, despite this increasing popularity, libre software is still
  poorly understood. Perhaps because   of  this, in recent years   the
  research community  has started  to  focus some  attention  on libre
  software itself: its development   models, the business models  that
  surround it,  the  motivations of  the   developers, etc.   In  this
  context, we (invited by UPGRADE and Novática, two journals that have
  shown for years a serious interest in this field) felt that the time
  was  ripe  to put together this   monograph on "Libre  Software as A
  Field of Study".  Consequently, we issued  a call for contributions,
  which led to a  process in  which each  proposal was reviewed  by at
  least two experts in the field.

  [...]

  This monograph issues contains   seven papers that cover several  of
  the  topics  mentioned  above and make   use of  a great  variety of
  empirical and theoretical approaches.  The   first paper, by  Andrea
  Deverell and  Par Agerfalk,   is about the   CALIBRE  (Co-ordination
  Action  for  LIBRE  Software)   project,  funded  by  the   European
  Commission   to  improve European   research in  the field  of libre
  software.

  After this comes a paper entitled "Libre Software Movement: The Next
  Evolution  of The IT   Production Organization?", written by Nicolas
  Jullien, which  discusses  the dissemination  of libre  software. It
  argues from a historical perspective that libre software constitutes
  the next evolution in industrial IT organization.

  The  next  few papers  deal   with  workings within  libre  software
  projects.  Juan-José   Amor-Iglesias, Jesús  M.   González-Barahona,
  Gregorio Robles-Martínez   and   Israel Herráiz-Tabernero,  in their
  paper  "Measuring Libre Software Using  Debian 3.1 (Sarge) as A Case
  Study: Preliminary Results", show empirical results  from one of the
  most popular and largest projects in existence, based on an analysis
  of  source  code.  Charles  M.  Schweik  tries   to  identify design
  principles  leading to a project's  success or failure; in his paper
  "An Institutional   Analysis  Approach to   Studying Libre  Software
  `Commons'" he presents a  framework for analysing  the institutional
  design   of commons  settings  to  be   applied  to  libre  software
  projects.  Finally, Sandeep Krishnamurthy,  using Mozilla Firefox as
  an example, challenges the   view that in libre   software projects,
  anyone can participate   without   hindrance.  He coins   the   term
  "closed-door project" for projects with a tight control and explains
  why such a strategy might be adopted in his paper "About Closed-door
  Free/Libre/Open Source (FLOSS)  Projects:  Lessons from the  Mozilla
  Firefox Developer Recruitment Approach".

  The issue concludes with two papers  which aim to put libre software
  and  its development  in   the  context  of `mainstream'    software
  engineering practices. Alberto Sillitti and Giancarlo Succi in their
  paper "Agility  and   Libre   Software Development"  evaluate    the
  relationship  and  commonalities between agile  software development
  methodologies, in particular eXtreme Programming, and libre software
  development.  Christian  Neumann and   Christoph  Breidert present a
  framework  for  comparing   different reuse strategies   in software
  development.  In their paper   titled "The Challenges of Using  Open
  Source Software as a Reuse Strategy" they give special consideration
  to the required technical and economical evaluation.

+++

Trovate tutto qui:

  http://www.upgrade-cepis.org/issues/2005/3/upgrade-vol-VI-3.html

Ciao,

--
Andrea Glorioso             sama a miu-ft.org         +39 333 820 5723
        .:: Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia ::.
	      Conquering the world for fun and profit
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