eScience for Free/Libre Open Source Software Researchers

This paper presents a case study of the application of eScience tools and practices for the social science research community studying Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development practices. We first describe what we mean by eScience and introduce research on FLOSS to motivate the need for eScience tools and approaches. We then describe our initial efforts to introduce eScience tools for FLOSS research, potential obstacles, and how the use of such tools might affect the practice of research in this field.