Abstract
While there has been some research on coordination in FLOSS, such research has focused on coordination within a project or within a group. The area of cross-project coordination, where shared goals are tenuous or non-existent, has been under-researched. This paper explores the question of how multiple projects working on a single piece of existing software in the FLOSS environment can coordinate. Using the Ordering Systems lens, we examine this question via a cross-case analysis of four projects performed on the open source game Jagged Alliance 2 (JA2) in the forum Bear's Pit. Our main findings are that: (1) Ongoing cross-project ordering systems are influenced by the materiality of development artifacts. (2) The emergent trajectory of cross-project ordering systems is influenced by affordances that emerge from the interaction between the goals and desires of the project team building the development artifact, and the materiality of the development artifact. (3) When two parties need to coordinate in the ordering system, all or almost all coordination effort can be borne by a single party. Furthermore, over time, emergent FLOSS projects bear more coordination effort than stable, mature projects.
Recommended Citation
Chua, C. E., & Yeow, A. Y. (2010). Artifacts, Actors, and Interactions in the Cross-Project Coordination Practices of Open-Source Communities. Journal of the Association of Information Systems, 11(12), pp. 838-867. Association for Information Systems (AIS).
Department(s)
Business and Information Technology
Keywords and Phrases
Cross-project coordination; Materiality; Open-source; Ordering systems
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1536-9323; 1558-3457
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2010 Association for Information Systems (AIS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2010
