%0 Journal Article %J Information Systems Research %D 2013 %T The Effects of Diversity in Global, Distributed Collectives: A Study of Open Source Project Success %A Sherae Daniel %A Ritu Agarwal %A Stewart, Katherine J. %X Diversity is a defining characteristic of global collectives facilitated by the Internet. Though substantial evidence suggests that diversity has profound implications for a variety of outcomes including performance, member engagement, and withdrawal behavior, the effects of diversity have been predominantly investigated in the context of organizational workgroups or virtual teams. We use a diversity lens to study the success of nontraditional virtual work groups exemplified by open source software (OSS) projects. Building on the diversity literature, we propose that three types of diversity (separation, variety, and disparity) influence two critical outcomes for OSS projects: community engagement and market success. We draw on the OSS literature to further suggest that the effects of diversity on market success are moderated by the application development stage. We instantiate the operational definitions of three forms of diversity to the unique context of open source projects. Using archival data from 357 projects hosted on SourceForge, we find that disparity diversity, reflecting variation in participants' contribution-based reputation, is positively associated with success. The impact of separation diversity, conceptualized as culture and measured as diversity in the spoken language and country of participants, has a negative impact on community engagement but an unexpected positive effect on market success. Variety diversity, reflected in dispersion in project participant roles, positively influences community engagement and market success. The impact of diversity on market success is conditional on the development stage of the project. We discuss how the study's findings advance the literature on antecedents of OSS success, expand our theoretical understanding of diversity, and present the practical implications of the results for managers of distributed collectives. %B Information Systems Research %V 24 %P 312 - 333 %8 06/2013 %N 2 %! Information Systems Research %R 10.1287/isre.1120.0435 %0 Conference Paper %B Information Systems Research %D 2012 %T The Effects of Diversity in Global, Distributed Collectives: A Study of Open Source Project Success %A Daniel, Sherae L. %A Ritu Agarwal %A Stewart, Katherine J. %K diversity %K global collectives %K open source software %X Diversity is a defining characteristic of global collectives facilitated by the Internet. Though substantial evidence suggests that diversity has profound implications for a variety of outcomes including performance, member engagement, and withdrawal behavior, the effects of diversity have been predominantly investigated in the context of organizational workgroups or virtual teams. We use a diversity lens to study the success of non-traditional virtual work groups exemplified by open source software (OSS) projects. Building on the diversity literature, we propose that three types of diversity (separation, variety and disparity) influence two critical outcomes for OSS projects: community engagement and market success. We draw on the OSS literature to further suggest that the effects of diversity on market success are moderated by the application development stage. We instantiate the operational definitions of three forms of diversity to the unique context of open source projects. Using archival data from 357 projects hosted on SourceForge, we find that disparity diversity, reflecting variation in participants‘ contribution-based reputation, is positively associated with success. The impact of separation diversity, conceptualized as culture and measured as diversity in the spoken language and country of participants, has a negative impact on community engagement but an unexpected positive effect on market success. Variety diversity, reflected in dispersion in project participant roles, positively influences community engagement and market success. The impact of diversity on market success is conditional on the development stage of the project. We discuss how the study‘s findings advance the literature on antecedents of OSS success, expand our theoretical understanding of diversity, and present the practical implications of the results for managers of distributed collectives. %B Information Systems Research %> https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/isr_2012.pdf %0 Conference Paper %B 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2010) %D 2010 %T Exploring Complexity in Open Source Software: Evolutionary Patterns, Antecedents, and Outcomes %A Darcy, David P. %A Daniel, Sherae L. %A Stewart, Katherine J. %K complexity %K evolution %K fda %K life cycle %K sourceforge %K srda %X Software complexity is important to researchers and managers, yet much is unknown about how complexity evolves over the life of a software application and whether different dimensions of software complexity may exhibit similar or different evolutionary patterns. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data on a sample of 108 open source projects, this research investigated how the complexity of open source project releases varied throughout the life of the project. Functional data analysis was applied to the release histories of the projects and recurring evolutionary patterns were derived. There were projects that saw little evolution, according to their measures of size and structural complexity. However, projects that displayed some evolution often differed on the pattern of evolution depending on whether size or structural complexity was examined. Factors that contribute to and result from the patterns of complexity were evaluated, and implications for research and practice are presented. %B 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2010) %I IEEE %C Honolulu, Hawaii, USA %P 1 - 11 %@ 978-1-4244-5509-6 %R 10.1109/HICSS.2010.198 %> https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/10-07-02.pdf %0 Conference Paper %B ICIS 2002. Proceedings of International Conference on Information Systems 2002 %D 2002 %T An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing the Level of Vitality and Popularity of Open Source Projects %A Stewart, Katherine J. %A Ammeter, Tony %K activity %K audience %K developers %K freshmeat %K license analysis %K licenses %K organizational sponsorship %K project success %K roles %K status %K target audience %K users %X In this research, we ask the question: What differentiates successful from unsuccessful open source software projects? Using a sample of 240 open source projects, we examine how organizational sponsorship, target audience (developer versus end user), license choice, and development status interact over time to influence the extent to which open source software projects attract user attention and developer activity. %B ICIS 2002. Proceedings of International Conference on Information Systems 2002 %P 1-5 %8 2002