@inbook {1605, title = {Crafting a Systematic Literature Review on Open-Source Platforms}, booktitle = {Open Source Software: Mobile Open Source Technologies}, series = {IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology}, volume = {427}, year = {2014}, pages = {113-122}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, abstract = { This working paper unveils the crafting of a systematic literature review on open-source platforms. The high-competitive mobile devices market, where several players such as Apple, Google, Nokia and Microsoft run a platforms- war with constant shifts in their technological strategies, is gaining increasing attention from scholars. It matters, then, to review previous literature on past platforms-wars, such as the ones from the PC and game-console industries, and assess its implications to the current mobile devices platforms-war. The paper starts by justifying the purpose and rationale behind this literature review on open-source platforms. The concepts of open-source software and computer-based platforms were then discussed both individually and in unison, in order to clarify the core-concept of {\textquotedblleft}open-source platform{\textquotedblright} that guides this literature review. The detailed design of the employed methodological strategy is then presented as the central part of this paper. The paper concludes with preliminary findings organizing previous literature on open-source platforms for the purpose of guiding future research in this area. }, keywords = {Ecosystems, FLOSS, open-source, Platforms, R\&D Management}, isbn = {978-3-642-55127-7}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-55128-4_16}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55128-4_16}, author = {Teixeira, Jose and Baiyere, Abayomi}, editor = {Corral, Luis and Sillitti, Alberto and Succi, Giancarlo and Vlasenko, Jelena and Wasserman, AnthonyI.} } @proceedings {1636, title = {Free/Open Source Software projects as early MOOCs}, year = {2014}, month = {04/2014}, pages = {874-883}, abstract = {This paper presents Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) Projects as early Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). Being software development a process where learning and collaboration is of major importance, FLOSS projects have in common many characteristics with MOOCs. This is because many FLOSS projects (such as Linux, Apache, GNOME or KDE, among others) are massive, they are open to anyone to participate, and are driven mainly by telematic means. We therefore present the research literature that has studied FLOSS projects from points of view that are close to learning and discuss how the FLOSS community has approached many of the issues related to acquiring knowledge and skills over the Internet and compare them to how currently MOOCs, both xMOOCs and cMOOCs, address these situations. }, keywords = {education, FLOSS, learning, mooc}, doi = {10.1109/EDUCON.2014.6826200}, author = {Robles, G. and Plaza, H. and Gonzalez-Barahona, J.M.} } @article {1745, title = {SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF FREE/OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPERS: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FROM A CASE STUDY}, journal = {Revista Eletr{\^o}nica de Sistemas de Informa{\c c}{\~a}o}, volume = {13}, year = {2014}, month = {08/2014}, abstract = {Software development is a human intensive activity. And as such, how developers face their tasks is of major importance. In an environment such as the one that is common in FOSS (free/open source software) projects where professionals (i.e., paid developers) share the development effort with volunteers, the morale of the development and user community is of major importance. In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis using sentiment analysis techniques to a FOSS project. We therefore mine the mailing list of a project and apply these techniques to the most relevant participants. Although the application is at this time limited, we hope that this experience can be of benefit in the future to determine situations that may affect the developers or the project, such as low productivity, developer abandonment, project forking, etc. }, keywords = {developer productivity, FLOSS, mailing lists, natural language processing, openSUSE, sentiment analysis, software development; software repository mining}, doi = {10.5329/RESI.2014.1302006}, url = {http://189.16.45.2/ojs/index.php/reinfo/article/view/1677}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/1677-6732-1-PB.pdf}, author = {Rousinopoulos, Athanasios-Ilias and Gregorio Robles and Gonz{\'a}lez-Barahona, Jes{\'u}s M.} } @conference {Teixeira:2014:UCO:2641580.2641627, title = {Understanding Coopetition in the Open-Source Arena: The Cases of WebKit and OpenStack}, booktitle = {Proceedings of The International Symposium on Open Collaboration}, series = {OpenSym {\textquoteright}14}, year = {2014}, pages = {39:1{\textendash}39:5}, publisher = {ACM}, organization = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, abstract = {In an era of software crisis, the move of firms towards distributed software development teams is being challenged by emerging collaboration issues. On this matter, the open-source phenomenon may shed some light, as successful cases on distributed collaboration in the open-source community have been recurrently reported. In our research we explore collaboration networks in the WebKit and OpenStack high-networked open-source projects, by mining their source-code version-control-systems data with Social Network Analysis (SNA). Our approach allows us to observe how key events in the industry affect open-source collaboration networks over time. With our findings, we highlight the explanatory power from network visualizations capturing the collaborative dynamics of high-networked software projects over time. Moreover, we argue that competing companies that sell similar products in the same market, can collaborate in the open-source community while publicly manifesting intense rivalry (e.g. Apple vs Samsung patent-wars). After integrating our findings with the current body of theoretical knowledge in management strategy, economics, strategic alliances and coopetition, we propose the novel notion of open-coopetition, where rival firms collaborate with competitors in the open-source community. We argue that classical coopetition management theories do not fully explain the competitive and collaborative issues that are simultaneously present and interconnected in the WebKit and OpenStack open-source communities. We propose the development of the novel open-coopetition theory for a better understanding on how rival-firms collaborate with competitors by open-source manners. }, keywords = {COLLABORATION, Competition, Coopetition, Ecosystems, FLOSS, Open-Coopetition, open-source, OSS, Strategic Alliances}, isbn = {978-1-4503-3016-9}, doi = {10.1145/2641580.2641627}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2641580.2641627}, author = {Teixeira, Jose} } @conference {Barcomb:2014:VAR:2641580.2641628, title = {Volunteer Attraction and Retention in Open Source Communities}, booktitle = {Proceedings of The International Symposium on Open Collaboration}, series = {OpenSym {\textquoteright}14}, year = {2014}, pages = {40:1{\textendash}40:2}, publisher = {ACM}, organization = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, abstract = {The importance of volunteers in open source has led to the position of community manager becoming more common in foundations and projects. Yet the advice for volunteer management and retention is fragmented, incomplete, contradictory, and has not been empirically examined. Our aim is to fill this gap by creating a comprehensive guidebook of best practices drawing from open source practitioner guides and general literature on volunteering, and to subject a subset of practices to empirical study. A method for evaluating volunteer attrition in terms of value to the organization will also be developed. }, keywords = {Community Management, FLOSS, open source, Recruitment, Service Duration, Volunteer Management, Volunteer Retention, Volunteers}, isbn = {978-1-4503-3016-9}, doi = {10.1145/2641580.2641628}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2641580.2641628}, author = {Barcomb, Ann} } @conference {1317, title = {Describing the Software Forge Ecosystem}, booktitle = {45th Hawai{\textquoteright}i International Conference on System Sciences}, year = {2012}, note = {http://flossmole.org/content/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-software-forges-code-forges-june-2011}, month = {01/2012}, pages = {3416-3425}, abstract = {Code forges are online software systems that are designed to support teams doing software development work. There have been few if any attempts in the research literature to describe the web of people, projects, and tools that make up the free, libre, and open source (FLOSS) forge ecosystem. The main contributions of this paper are (1) to introduce a classification of FLOSS-oriented forges according to their characteristics; (2) to describe the forge-level and project-level data and artifacts currently available at each FLOSS forge; (3) to show various patterns already discovered in the FLOSS forge ecosystem, such as timelines of creation or arrangements by size or feature; (4) to make some recommendations to forge providers and data collectors about how to expose the structure and information in the forges; and (5) to describe the effort needed to extend our publicly- available information about the FLOSS forge ecosystem into the future.}, keywords = {features, FLOSS, forge, hosting, metrics}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/SquireWilliamsHICSS2012.pdf}, author = {Squire, Megan and Williams, David} } @mastersthesis {1438, title = {Software Libre y abierto: comunidades y redes de producción digital de bienes comunes}, year = {2012}, pages = {269 pages}, school = {Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México}, address = {Ciudad de México, México}, abstract = {This thesis is about a collective form of production that have expanded and strengthen in the global high technology market. It is about FLOSS production. The study takes on account that technnologies are not neutral, they emerge as strategies and mechanisms of politics and economic interests. Although, FLOSS production is inserted in the capitalist context, the collective work of the communities and networks that produce it is based on ideas about freedom and solidarity. The types of rules and organization of labour inside of this communities have develop a kind of product that it is well categorized as part of the new commons. The conclusions at the end of this work pretend to offer a clear approach to the FLOSS production networks dynamics inside the virtual infrastructure. Specifically, it offers an approach of the interaction and forms of cooperation, as well of the individual and collective schemas that motivates the cooperation action of the individuals.}, keywords = {bienes comunes, commons, comunidades virtuales, FLOSS, flossmole, hackers, redes virtuales, repositories, repositorios, Software libre y abierto, virtual communities, virtual networks}, url = {http://132.248.9.195/ptd2012/agosto/406008604/Index.html}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/Tesis.pdf}, author = {Tania E. Turner Sen} } @conference {Wiggins:2010, title = {Reclassifying Success and Tragedy in {FLOSS} Projects}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Open Source Systems (OSS)}, year = {2010}, month = {31 May{\textendash}2 June}, address = {Notre Dame, IN, USA}, abstract = {This paper presents the results of a replication of English \& Schweik{\textquoteright}s 2007 paper classifying FLOSS projects according to their stage of growth and indicators of success. We recreated the analysis using a comparable data set from 2006, with one additional point in time. We also expanded upon the original results by applying different criteria for evaluating the rate of new software releases for sustainability of project activity. We discuss the points of convergence and divergence from the original work from these extensions of the classification, and their implications for studying FLOSS development using archival data. The paper contributes new analysis of operationalizing success in FLOSS projects, with discussion of implications of the findings.}, keywords = {FLOSS}, author = {Andrea Wiggins and Kevin Crowston} } @article {1414, title = {Competition and production of digital public goods}, journal = {International Journal of Intelligent Control and Systems}, volume = {14}, number = {1}, year = {2009}, pages = {77-86}, chapter = {77}, abstract = {With the Internet has come the phenomenon of people volunteering to work on digital public goods such as open source software and online encyclopedia articles. Presumably, the success of individual public goods has an effect on attracting volunteers. However, the definition of success is ill-defined. This paper explores the impact of different success metrics on a simple public goods model. The findings show that the different success metrics considered do have an impact on the behavior of the model, with the largest differences being between consumer-oriented and producer-oriented metrics. This indicates that many proposed success metrics may be mapped into one of these two categories and within a category, all success metrics measure the same phenomenon. We argue that the characteristics of producer-oriented metrics more closely match real world phenomena, indicating that public goods are driven by producer, and not consumer, interests.}, keywords = {digital public goods, FLOSS, open source software, sourceforge, success metrics, wikipedia}, url = {http://www.public.asu.edu/~majansse/pubs/ijics2009.pdf}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/ijics2009.pdf}, author = {Radtke, Nicholas P. and Janssen, Marco A.} } @article {1338, title = {What Makes Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) Projects Successful? An Agent-Based Model of FLOSS Projects}, journal = {International Journal of Open Source Software and Processes}, volume = {1}, year = {2009}, pages = {1 - 13}, abstract = {The last few years have seen a rapid increase in the number of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects. Some of these projects, such as Linux and the Apache web server, have become phenomenally successful. However, for every successful FLOSS project there are dozens of FLOSS projects which never succeed. These projects fail to attract developers and/or consumers and, as a result, never get off the ground. The aim of this research is to better understand why some FLOSS projects flourish while others wither and die. This article presents a simple agent-based model that is calibrated on key patterns of data from SourceForge, the largest online site hosting open source projects. The calibrated model provides insight into the conditions necessary for FLOSS success and might be used for scenario analysis of future developments of FLOSS.}, keywords = {Agent-Based Model, Emergent Properties, FLOSS, open source, Prediction Success, Simulation}, issn = {1942-3934}, doi = {10.4018/jossp.2009040101}, url = {http://www.public.asu.edu/~majansse/pubs/ijossp09.pdf}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/ijossp09.pdf}, author = {Radtke, Nicholas P. and Janssen, Marco A. and Collofello, James S.} } @article {Crowston:2008, title = {Bug Fixing Practices within Free/Libre Open Source Software Development Teams}, journal = {Journal of Database Management}, volume = {19}, number = {2}, year = {2008}, note = {"Projects to be studied were selected from those hosted on SourceForge, (http://sourceforge.net/)" "we chose projects for which data we need for our analysis are publicly available, meaning a large number of bug reports" "we chose teams with more than 8 developers" "Only 140 projects of SourceForge met the first two requirements in 2002 when we drew our sample" kicq, gaim, phpmyadmin, dynapi "First, we obtained data indica- tive of the effectiveness of each project, such as its level of activity, number of downloads and development status" "we elected to use objective data about the bug- fixing process. Hence, the main source of data about the bug-fixing process was obtained from the archives of the bug tracking system, which is the tool used to support the bug-fixing process"}, pages = {1{\textendash}30}, abstract = {Free/libre open source software (FLOSS, e.g., Linux or Apache) is primarily developed by distributed teams. Developers contribute from around the world and coordinate their activity almost exclusively by means of email and bulletin boards, yet some how profit from the advantages and evade the challenges of distributed software development. In this article we investigate the structure and the coordination practices adopted by development teams during the bug-fixing process, which is considered one of main areas of FLOSS project success. In particular, based on a codification of the messages recorded in the bug tracking system of four projects, we identify the accomplished tasks, the adopted coordination mechanisms, and the role undertaken by both the FLOSS development team and the FLOSS community. We conclude with suggestions for further research.}, keywords = {activity, bug tracker, bug tracking system, coordination, downloads, dynapi, effectiveness, FLOSS, gaim, kicq, phpmyadmin, project success, size, status}, issn = {1063-8016}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/CrowstonScozziJDBM2008.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Barbara Scozzi} } @conference {Krogstie:2008:PTB:1368088.1368201, title = {Power through brokering: open source community participation in software engineering student projects}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Software engineering}, series = {ICSE {\textquoteright}08}, year = {2008}, pages = {791{\textendash}800}, publisher = {ACM}, organization = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, abstract = {Many software engineering projects use open source software tools or components. The project team{\textquoteright}s active participation in the open source community may be necessary for the team to use the technology. Based on an in-depth field study of industry software engineering project students interacting with an open source community, we find that participation in the community may affect the team{\textquoteright}s work and learning by strengthening the power of the broker between the team and the community. We outline pitfalls and benefits of having student teams acquire development-related knowledge from open source communities. The findings are relevant to the organization and supervision of software engineering student projects interacting with open source communities.}, keywords = {Communities Of Practice, computer science education, FLOSS, open source, software engineering, software engineering education}, isbn = {978-1-60558-079-1}, doi = {10.1145/1368088.1368201}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1368088.1368201}, author = {Krogstie, Birgit R.} } @article {495, title = {Towards an understanding of FLOSS: Infrastructures, Materiality and the Digital Business Ecosystem}, journal = {Science Studies}, number = {2}, year = {2007}, abstract = {In this paper we present empirical work detailing the engagement practices of a large FLOSS project, the Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE). In common with many other FLOSS projects, the DBE project focused on the development of infrastructural software components. Infrastructures and FLOSS software exhibit multiplicity: as objects they both change and stay the same. Whilst the implications of multiplicity with respect to infrastructure have been well-documented, with respect to FLOSS, they remain under-explored. Through examining how the DBE engaged new participants we were able to explore the nature of the FLOSS software object by asking the implied question: engagement with what? We draw on recent analysis by Law and Singleton to show how the innovative yet non-existent potentiality of the DBE was as significant to engagement as its steadily growing codebase. We argue that acknowledging the materiality and immateriality of the FLOSS software object has important consequences for management of, and engagement with, FLOSS projects.}, keywords = {engagement, FLOSS, infrastructures, INNOVATION, materiality}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/Darking_Whitley.pdf}, author = {Mary Darking and Edgar A Whitley} } @article {Crowston:2006a, title = {Hierarchy and centralization in Free and Open Source Software team communications}, journal = {Knowledge, Technology \& Policy}, volume = {18}, number = {4}, year = {2006}, pages = {65{\textendash}85}, abstract = {Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams provide an interesting and convenient setting for studying distributed work. We begin by answering perhaps the most basic question: what is the social structure of these teams? Based on a social network analysis of interactions represented in 62,110 bug reports from 122 large and active projects, we find that some OSS teams are highly centralized, but contrary to expectation, others are not. Projects are mostly quite hierarchical on four measures of hierarchy, consistent with past research but contrary to the popular image of these projects. Furthermore, we find that the level of centralization is negatively correlated with project size, suggesting that larger projects become more modular. The paper makes a further methodological contribution by identifying appropriate analysis approaches for interaction data. We conclude by sketching directions for future research.}, keywords = {apache, bug fixing, bug tracking, FLOSS, project success, savannah, social network analysis, sourceforge, team size, teams}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/CrowstonHierarchyAndCentralization.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Howison, James} } @article {Crowston:2006, title = {Information systems success in Free and Open Source Software development: Theory and measures}, journal = {Software Process{\textendash}Improvement and Practice}, volume = {11}, number = {2}, year = {2006}, note = {"we continue our examination of success measures using data from Sourceforge..." "e chose the number of developers (assessed from the records of the project and from bug fixing logs), bug-fixing time, and popularity (assessed from the number of downloads and viewings of project Web pages, and inclusion in distributions). These measures were chosen because they span the reconsidered FLOSS development process discussed above, including inputs (number of developers), process (speed of bug fixing) and output (popularity)."}, pages = {123{\textendash}148}, abstract = {Information systems success is one of the most widely used dependent variables in information systems (IS) research, but research on Free/Libre and Open Source software (FLOSS) often fails to appropriately conceptualize this important concept. In this paper, we reconsider what success means within a FLOSS context. We first review existing models of IS success and success variables used in FLOSS research and assess them for their usefulness, practicality and fit to the FLOSS context. Then, drawing on a theoretical model of group effectiveness in the FLOSS development process, as well as an online discussion group with developers, we present additional concepts that are central to an appropriate understanding of success for FLOSS. In order to examine the practicality and validity of this conceptual scheme, the second half of our paper presents an empirical study that demonstrates its operationalization of the chosen measures and assesses their internal validity. We use data from SourceForge to measure the project{\textquoteright}s effectiveness in team building, the speed of the project at responding to bug reports and the project{\textquoteright}s popularity. We conclude by discussing the implications of this study for our proposed extension of IS success in the context of FLOSS development and highlight future directions for research.}, keywords = {bug fixing, developers, downloads, FLOSS, flossmole, page views, popularity, project success, size, sourceforge, success, team size}, doi = {10.1002/spip.259}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/CrowstonHowisonAnnabi2006.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Howison, James and Hala Annabi} } @proceedings {89, title = {Coordination of Free/Libre Open Source Software development}, year = {2005}, note = {"The data used for the study were interactions on the main developer communication venue, either a developer mailing list or online forum" sourceforge }, address = {Las Vegas, NV, USA}, 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 = {case study, compiere, coordination, egroupware, email, email archives, FLOSS, gaim, mailing list}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/CrowstonWeiLiEseryelHowison.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Kangning Wei and Li, Qing and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and Howison, James} } @conference {781, title = {Idealism and Commercialism {\textendash} Developing Free/Libre and Open Source Software in Private Businesses}, booktitle = {OSS2005: Open Source Systems }, year = {2005}, pages = {301-302}, abstract = {This paper presents a PhD research project undertaken as part of a larger project aimed at paying sociological attention to different forms of distribution of knowledge, including program code. We want to investigate empirically how the commons knows as free/open source software is actually made. In my PhD project I study the use and development of FLOSS in private businesses, focusing on professional developers working in private businesses and at the same time participating in the FLOSS community. The theoretical starting point is theories of power, dominance and legitimacy by Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu.}, keywords = {dominance, FLOSS, FLOSS community, free/libre, legitimacy, linux, open source, Private Businesses, social organisation, theories of power}, url = {http://pascal.case.unibz.it/handle/2038/970}, author = {Lundestad, Christian V.} } @conference {784, title = {An Investigation of Developer and User Activity In FLOSS Projects}, booktitle = {OSS2005: Open Source Systems }, year = {2005}, pages = {307-308}, abstract = {This document outlines research plans to investigate the evolution of a set of FLOSS (Free, Libre, and Open Source Software) projects and their communities by looking at patterns of developer and user activity through a combination of analysis of archived material and interaction with the project communities. The goal of the proposed research is to better understand the dynamics within FLOSS projects and how some projects become successful.}, keywords = {developer, development, FLOSS, FLOSS project, open source, pattern, portal, project}, url = {http://pascal.case.unibz.it/handle/2038/712}, author = {Gale, Stephen} } @conference {790, title = { Socialization practices in FLOSS development teams}, booktitle = {OSS2005: Open Source Systems }, year = {2005}, pages = {322-323}, abstract = {Socialization of new members into Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams is an important but little studied process in producing effective teams of this type. This is a dissertation proposal for a virtual ethnographic study that looks at the mechanisms and processes used to socialize new members into the team in order to help maintain a common group identity and focus.}, keywords = {development team, FLOSS, member, open source, socialization}, url = {http://pascal.case.unibz.it/handle/2038/1438}, author = {Chengetai Masango} } @conference {Crowston:2004, title = {Coordination practices for bug fixing within FLOSS development teams}, booktitle = {1st International Workshop on Computer Supported Activity Coordination, 6th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems}, year = {2004}, note = {"First, we chose projects for which data we need for our analysis are publicly available (not all projects allow public access to the bug tracking system). Second, we chose teams with more than 8 members...we tried to select more and less suc- cessful development teams. To this aim we used the definitions of success proposed by [9], who suggest that a project is successful if it is active, the resulting software is downloaded and used and the code matures" "Kicq, Gaim and PhPmyAdmin were chosen" - effective DynAPI was chosen as an example of a less effective project" "We collected data indicative of the success of each project, such as its level of activity, number of downloads and development status. We then collected data from the archives of the bug tracking system, the tool used to support the bug fixing process"}, address = {Porto, Portugal}, abstract = {Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is primarily developed by distributed teams. Developers contribute from around the world and coordinate their activity almost exclusively by means of email and bulletin boards. FLOSS development teams some how profit from the advantages and evade the challenges of distributed software development. Despite the relevance of the FLOSS both for research and practice, few studies have investigated the work practices adopted by these development teams. In this paper we investigate the structure and the coordination practices adopted by development teams during the bug-fixing process, which is considered one of main areas of FLOSS project success. In particular, based on a codification of the messages recorded in the bug tracking system of four projects, we identify the accomplished tasks, the adopted coordination mechanisms, and the role undertaken by both the FLOSS development team and the FLOSS community. We conclude with suggestions for further research.}, keywords = {activity, bug fixing, bug reports, bug tracker, coordination, downloads, dynapi, FLOSS, gaim, kicq, phpmyadmin, status}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/CrowstonScozzi04coordination.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Barbara Scozzi} }