%0 Journal Article %J Ieee Transactions on Professional Communication %D 2007 %T The role of face-to-face meetings in technology-supported self-organizing distributed teams %A Kevin Crowston %A James Howison %A Chengetai Masango %A Eseryel, U. Yeliz %X We examine the role of face-to-face meetings in the context of technology-supported self-organizing distributed (or virtual teams), specifically Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams. Based on a qualitative inductive analysis of data from interviews and observations at FLOSS conferences, we identify a variety of settings in which developers meet face-to-face, and we point out the activities performed in these settings and the benefits obtained. Contrary to conventional wisdom about distributed teams, FLOSS developers generally do not meet face-to-face until the project is well under way. An additional benefit offace-to-face meetings is time away from a regular job and speed of interaction for certain kinds of tasks. %B Ieee Transactions on Professional Communication %V 50 %P 185-203 %G eng %M WOS:000249308800001 %1 communication? %2 grounded theory %0 Conference Paper %B OSS2005: Open Source Systems %D 2005 %T Socialization practices in FLOSS development teams %A Chengetai Masango %K development team %K FLOSS %K member %K open source %K socialization %X 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. %B OSS2005: Open Source Systems %P 322-323 %U http://pascal.case.unibz.it/handle/2038/1438 %0 Conference Paper %B OSS2005: Open Source Systems %D 2005 %T A structurational perspective on leadership in Free/Libre Open Source Software teams %A Kevin Crowston %A Robert Heckman %A Hala Annabi %A Chengetai Masango %X In this conceptual paper, we present a structuration- based theory of leadership behaviours in self-organizing distributed teams such as Free/Libre Open Source Software development teams. Such teams are often composed of members of relatively equal status or who are so disparate in background that formal organizational status seems irrelevant, reducing the usual leadership cues provided by organizational status and title. Building on a functional view of leadership and structuration theory, we suggest that leaders are individuals who develop team structures that then guide the actions of team members. Specifically, we examine structures of signification in the form of shared mental models, structures of domination in the form of role structures and structures of legitimation in form of rules and norms. The main contribution of our paper is the integration of various social theories to describe emergent leadership behaviours in distributed teams. We develop a set of prop... %B OSS2005: Open Source Systems %P 9-15 %U http://pascal.case.unibz.it/handle/2038/623 %0 Conference Paper %B Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, International Conference on Software Engineering %D 2004 %T Towards a Portfolio of FLOSS project Success Measures %A Kevin Crowston %A Hala Annabi %A Howison, James %A Chengetai Masango %K bug fixing %K developers %K downloads %K project success %K sourceforge %K team %K team size %X Project success is one of the most widely used dependent variables in information systems research. However, conventional measures of project success are difficult to apply to Free/Libre Open Source Software projects. In this paper, we present an analysis of four measures of success applied to SourceForge projects: number of members of the extended development community, project activity, bug fixing time and number of downloads. We argue that these four measures provide different insights into the collaboration and control mechanisms of the projects. %B Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, International Conference on Software Engineering %8 May %G eng %> https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/crowston04towards.pdf