@article {125,
	title = {Membership herding and network stability in the open source community: The Ising perspective},
	journal = {Management Science},
	volume = {53},
	number = {7},
	year = {2007},
	month = {Jul},
	pages = {1086-1101},
	abstract = {The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to conceptually understand membership dynamics in the open source software (OSS) community, and (2) to explore how different network characteristics (i.e., network size and connectivity) influence the stability of an OSS network. Through the lens of Ising theory, which is widely accepted in physics, we investigate basic patterns of interaction and present fresh conceptual insight into dynamic and reciprocal relations among OSS community members. We also perform computer simulations based on empirical data collected from two actual OSS communities. Key findings include: (1) membership herding is highly present when external influences (e.g., the availability of other OSS projects) are weak, but decreases significantly when external influences increase, (2) propensity for membership herding is most likely to be seen in a large network with random connectivity, and (3) for large networks, when external influences are weak, random connectivity will result in higher network strength than scale-free connectivity (as external influences increase, however, the reverse phenomenon is observed). In addition, scale-free connectivity appears to be less volatile than random connectivity in response to an increase in the strength of external influences. We conclude with several implications that may be of significance to OSS stakeholders in particular, and to a broader range of online communities in general.},
	keywords = {BEHAVIOR, DYNAMICS, ECONOMICS, INNOVATION, INVESTMENT, Ising theory, membership herding, MODEL, MOTIVATION, network connectivity, network stability, open source, PHASE-TRANSITION, UNCERTAINTY},
	isbn = {0025-1909},
	author = {Oh, Wonseok and Jeon, Sangyong}
}
@proceedings {124,
	title = {Membership dynamics and network stability in the open-source community: the ising perspective},
	year = {2004},
	note = {"simulations with the empirical network data that were collected from two actual OSS communities, Linux and Hypermail."

"we initially downloaded nearly 100,000 archived (between 1997 and 2003) LINUX Kernel and Hypermail newsgroup messages posted in a UNIX mailbox format"

"Specific information was obtained regarding the characteristics of these two OSS communities, including the size, the number of average connections per participant, and the hierarchy of each community."},
	abstract = {In this paper, we address the following two questions: (1)How does a participant{\textquoteright}s membership decision affect the others (neighbors) with whom he has collaborated over an extended period of time in an open source software (OSS) network? (2) To what extent do network characteristics (i.e, size and connectivity) mediate the impact of external factors on the OSS participants{\textquoteright} dynamic membership decisions and hence the stability of the network? From the Ising perspective, we present fresh theoretical insight into the dynamic and reciprocal membership relations between OSS participants. We also performed simulations based on empirical data that were collected from two actual OSS communities. Some of the key findings include that (1) membership herding is highly present when the external force is weak, but decreases significantly when the force increases, (2) the propensity for membership herding is most likely to be seen in a large network with a random connectivity, and (3) for large networks, at low external force a random connectivity will perform better than a scale-free counterpart in terms of the network strength. However, as the temperature (external force) increases, the reverse phenomenon is observed. In addition, the scale-free connectivity appears to be less volatile than with the random connectivity in response to the increase in the temperature. We conclude with several implications that may be of significance to OSS stakeholders.},
	keywords = {email, email archive, hypermail, linux, mailing list, membership, membership herding, newsgroup, open source, participants, social network analysis, stakeholders, team size},
	attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/OhJeon.pdf},
	author = {Oh, Wonseok and Jeon, Sangyong}
}
