%0 Conference Proceedings %B IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (OSS 2012) %D 2012 %T A Comprehensive Study of Software Forks: Dates, Reasons and Outcomes %A Gregorio Robles %A González-Barahona, Jesús M. %K forking %K forks %K free software %K Legal %K open source %K social %K software evolution %K sustainability %X Summary. In general it is assumed that a software product evolves within the authoring company or group of developers that develop the project. However, in some cases different groups of developers make the software evolve in different directions, a situation which is commonly known as a fork. In the case of free software, although forking is a practice that is considered as a last resort, it is inherent to the four freedoms. This paper tries to shed some light on the practice of forking. Therefore, we have identified significant forks, several hundreds in total, and have studied them in depth. Among the issues that have been analyzed for each fork is the date when the forking occurred, the reason of the fork, and the outcome of the fork, i.e., if the original or the forking project are still developed. Our investigation shows, among other results, that forks occur in every software domain, that they have become more frequent in recent years, and that very few forks merge with the original project. %B IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (OSS 2012) %I IFIP AICT %V 378 %P 1-14 %> https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/paper_0.pdf %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Database Management %D 2007 %T Social network structures in open source software development teams %A Long, Y. %A Siau, K. %K bug tracking %K bugs %K COMMUNITY %K INNOVATION %K longitudinal study %K MODEL %K open source %K social %K social network analysis %K social networks %K sourceforge %K structure %X Drawing on social network theories and previous studies, this research examines the dynamics of social network structures in open source software (OSS) teams. Three projects were selected from SourceForge.net in terms of their similarities as well as their differences. Monthly data were extracted from the bug tracking systems in order to achieve a longitudinal view of the interaction pattern of each project. Social network analysis was used to generate the indices of social structure. The finding suggests that the interaction pattern of OSS projects evolves from a single hub at the beginning to a corel periphery model as the projects move forward. %B Journal of Database Management %V 18 %P 25-40 %8 Apr-Jun %@ 1063-8016 %G eng %M ISI:000244332400003 %1 information systems %2 SNA