@article {9999,
	title = {Collaboration through superposition: How the IT artifact as an object of collaboration affords technical interdependence without organizational interdependence},
	journal = {MIS Quarterly},
	volume = {38},
	year = {2014},
	month = {3/2104},
	pages = {29-50},
	abstract = {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.},
	doi = {10.25300/MISQ/2014/38.1.02},
	url = {http://misq.org/collaboration-through-open-superposition.html},
	attachments = {https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CollaborationThroughSuperposition-WorkingPaper.pdf},
	author = {James Howison and Kevin Crowston}
}
@conference {2008,
	title = {Cross-repository data linking with {RDF} and {OWL}: Towards common ontologies for representing {FLOSS} data},
	booktitle = {WoPDaSD (Workshop on Public Data at International Conference on Open Source Software)},
	year = {2008},
	abstract = {This paper provides an approach to the problem of integrating data from multiple research repositories for FLOSS data. It introduces semantic web technologies (RDF, OWL, OWL-DL reasoners and SPARQL) to argue that these are useful for building shared research infrastructure. The paper illustrates its point by describing parts of an ontology developed for the integration and analysis of project communications drawn from FLOSSmole, the Notre Dame archive and direct collection of data. RDF vocabularies provide a way to agree on things we agree about as well as a way to be clearer about ways in which we disagree.},
	keywords = {FLOSS, FLOSSmole},
	attachments = {https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/howison2008cross-repositor_0.pdf},
	author = {James Howison}
}
@article {2006,
	title = {Coordinating and motivating open source contributors},
	year = {2006},
	note = {LinuxWorld Asia Presentation Slides from James Howison{\textquoteright}s LinuxWorld Asia Workshop
A Black and White version of the slides from the workshop.},
	attachments = {https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Howison_LinuxWorldAsiaBW.pdf},
	author = {James Howison}
}
@proceedings {Crowston:2006b,
	title = {Core and periphery in Free/Libre and Open Source software team communications},
	year = {2006},
	address = {Kaua{\textquoteright}i, Hawai{\textquoteright}i, January},
	abstract = {The concept of the core group of developers is important and often discussed in empirical studies of FLOSS projects. This paper examines the question, {\textquotedblleft}how does one empirically distinguish the core?{\textquotedblright} 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{\textquoteright}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.},
	keywords = {FLOSS},
	attachments = {https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CoreAndPeripheryInFreeLibre.pdf},
	author = {Kevin Crowston and Kangning Wei and Li, Qing and James Howison}
}
@conference {Conklin:2005,
	title = {Collaboration Using OSSmole: A repository of FLOSS data and analyses},
	booktitle = {Symposium on Mining Software Repositories},
	year = {2005},
	month = {05/2005},
	address = {St. Louis},
	abstract = {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.},
	attachments = {https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CollaborationUsingOSSmole.pdf},
	author = {Conklin, Megan S. and James Howison and Kevin Crowston}
}
@proceedings {Crowston:2005,
	title = {Coordination of Free/Libre Open Source Software development},
	year = {2005},
	address = {Las Vegas, NV, USA, December},
	abstract = {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 {\textquotedblleft}self-assignment{\textquotedblright} 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.},
	keywords = {Coordination, FLOSS},
	attachments = {https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Coordination\%20of\%20Free\%20Libre\%20Open\%20Source\%20Software\%20Development.pdf , https://floss.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CoordinationFreeLibreOSSDevSlides.pdf},
	author = {Kevin Crowston and Kangning Wei and Li, Qing and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and James Howison}
}
