%0 Journal Article %J Information Economics and Policy %D 2008 %T The allocation of collaborative efforts in open-source software %A den Besten, Matthijs %A Jean-Michel Dalle %A Galia, Fabrice %K age %K apache %K complexity %K cvs %K division of labor %K functions %K gaim %K gcc %K ghostscript %K lines of code %K loc %K log files %K mozilla %K netbsd %K openssh %K postgresql %K python %K revision control %K scm %K size %K source code %K Stigmergy %K version control %X The article investigates the allocation of collaborative efforts among core developers (maintainers) of open-source software by analyzing on-line development traces (logs) for a set of 10 large projects. Specifically, we investigate whether the division of labor within open-source projects is influenced by characteristics of software code. We suggest that the collaboration among maintainers tends to be influenced by different measures of code complexity. We interpret these findings by providing preliminary evidence that the organization of open-source software development would self-adapt to characteristics of the code base, in a 'stigmergic' manner. %B Information Economics and Policy %V 20 %P 316 - 322 %U http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V8J-4SSG4PN-1/2/88b3824c30a31c18929d8a5ca6d64f62 %R DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2008.06.003 %0 Conference Paper %B OSS2006: Open Source Systems (IFIP 2.13) %D 2006 %T Collaborative Maintenance in Large Open-Source Projects %A den Besten, Matthijs %A Jean-Michel Dalle %A Galia, Fabrice %K apache %K COLLABORATION %K complexity %K cvs %K gaim %K gcc %K ghostscript %K halstead %K lines of code %K loc %K mccabe %K mozilla %K netbsd %K openssh %K postgresql %K python %K sloc %X The paper investigates collaborative work among maintainers of open source software by analyzing the logs of a set of 10 large projects. We inquire whether teamwork can be influenced by several characteristics of code. Preliminary results suggest that collaboration among maintainers in most large open-source projects seems to be positively influenced by file vintage and by Halstead volume of files, and negatively by McCabe complexity and size measured in SLOCs. These results could be consistent with an increased attractivity of files created early in the history of a project, and with maintainers being less attracted by more verbose code and by more complex code, although in this last case it might also reflect the fact that more complex files would be de facto more exclusive in terms of maintenance. %B OSS2006: Open Source Systems (IFIP 2.13) %S IFIP International Federation for Information Processing %I Springer %P 233 - 244 %G eng %R http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34226-5_23 %> https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/Collaborative%20Maintenance.pdf