An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing the Level of Vitality and Popularity of Open Source Projects

Submitted by msquire on Thu, 2011-04-21 11:14

Title	An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing the Level of Vitality and Popularity of Open Source Projects
Publication Type	Conference Paper
Year of Publication	2002
Authors	Stewart, KJ, Ammeter, T
Secondary Title	ICIS 2002. Proceedings of International Conference on Information Systems 2002
Pagination	1-5
Date Published	2002
Keywords	activity, audience, developers, freshmeat, license analysis, licenses, organizational sponsorship, project success, roles, status, target audience, users
Abstract	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.
Notes	"We are currently tracking publicly available data on 240 open source projects registered on the freshmeat Website." "First, we randomly selected a total of 120 projects from the utilities, software development, and games and entertainment areas. We then selected 120 projects from these forums that had been registered on the site during the two weeks prior to the start of our data collection effort."
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