L'open source a provoqué de profondes mutations industrielles. L'ampleur et l'intensité de ce phénomène exige une révision conceptuelle de bon nombre d'objets en sciences de gestion. Cette thèse aborde l'étude de l'impact des logiciels libres et synthétise les principaux enjeux de leur diffusion. Nous montrons tout d'abord que le modèle racine à l'origine du premier logiciel libre est issu de la combinaison inédite entre un système de solidarité et un processus de production distribué. Ensuite, nous décrivons les nouvelles interactions entre l'activité marchande et non-marchande donnant naissance à des formes organisationnelles originales et inédites. Puis, nous détaillons la manière dont ces logiciels sont utilisés comme composants génériques par des groupes industriels dans le but de générer de la valeur. Nous décrivons également d'autres stratégies consistant à utiliser divers mécanismes technologiques afin de contourner les règles des licences. Enfin, nous suggérons que les innovations créées par les organisations de l'open source visent principalement à combler les défaillances du système marchand.

<p>Purpose: The objective of this study is to illustrate how participants in leaderless based projects communicate with each other. Several studies have focused on technology-supported projects, such as open source projects, with an established project manager and goal. There is a lack, to the best of our knowledge, in studies that deal with the communication pattern in a leaderless computer supported collaborative project.</p><p>Method: We have chosen to use a quantitative method where we systematically group several messages according to their content. This method was used in a similar study to illustrate the communication between participants involved in an open source project. We have taken the same Kripendorff based method and adapted it to our study by adding more descriptive variables.</p><p>Theoretical perspectives: Manuel Castell discusses the aspects of a new communication power that is rooted in the individual as part of a larger creative audience. The collaborative works we have studies are prime examples of how the creative audience works together and of mass self‐communication. In order to analyze the potential motivations behind the participant’s involvement in these collaborative works, we have adopted the ideas of Preece and Shneidermans frame theory. They have identified 4 major roles in most onlinebased co‐operations and refer to them as reader, contributor, collaborator and leader.</p><p>Result: Our results show that the communication in computer supported collaborative works is characterized by positive and energetic communication. The participants are all involved by their own will; they contribute because they want to. We believe this to be the major factor influencing the flow and form of communication between the participants. The majority of posts are comments to other participants or contributing posts that add to the progression of the discourse. We also have reason to believe that the use of smileys and embedded pictures is related to the tools available to the participants; the quicker and easier it is to add a picture the more likely the participants will use these tools.</p>

Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) communities often use open bug reporting to allow users to participate by reporting bugs. This practice can lead to more duplicate reports, as inexperienced users can be less rigorous about researching existing bug reports. The purpose of this research is to determine the extent of this problem, and how FOSS projects deal with duplicate bug reports. We examined 12 FOSS projects: 4 small, 4 medium and 4 large, where size was determined by number of code contributors. First, we found that contrary to what has been reported from studies of individual large projects like Mozilla and Eclipse, duplicate bug reports are a problem for FOSS projects, especially medium-sized projects. These medium sized projects struggle with a large number of submissions and duplicates without the resources large projects use for dealing with these. Second, we found that the focus of a project does not affect the number of duplicate bug reports. Our findings point to a need for additional scaffolding and training for bug reporters of all types. Finally, we examine the impact that automatic crash reporting has on these bug repositories. These systems are quickly gaining in popularity and aim to help end-users submit vital bug information to the developers. These tools generate stack traces and memory dumps from software crashes and package these up so end-users can submit them to the project with a single mouse-click. We examined Mozilla's automatic crash reporting systems, Breakpad and Socorro, to determine how these integrate with the open bug reporting process, and whether they add to the confusion of duplicate bug reports. We found that though initial adoption exhibited teething troubles, these systems add significant value and knowledge, though the signal to noise ratio is high and the number of bugs identified per thousand reports is low. / Graduation date: 2012

Open Source Software (OSS) communities are homogenous and their lack of diversity is of concern to many within this field. This problem is becoming more pronounced as it is the practice of many technology companies to use OSS participation as a factor in the hiring process, disadvantaging those who are not a part of this community. We should expect that any field would have a population that reflects the general population given no constraints. The constraints within OSS are documented as being a hostile environment for women and minorities to participate in. Additionally OSS communities rely predominately on volunteers to create and maintain source code, documentation, and user interface as well as the organizational structure of the project. The volunteer nature of OSS projects creates a need for an ongoing pool of participants. This research addresses the lack of diversity along with the continual need for new members by developing a pedagogical paradigm that uses a collaborative environment to promote participation in an OSS project by diverse students. This collaborative environment used a Communities of Practice (CoP) framework to design the course, the indicators of which were used to operationalize the collaboration. The outcomes of this course not only benefit the students by providing them with skills necessary to continue participation and experience for getting a job, but also provide a diverse pool of volunteers for the OSS community. This diverse pool shows promise of creating a more diverse culture within OSS. In the development of this pedagogical paradigm this research looked primarily at student���s perception of the importance of their group members and mentors provided to guide their participation in and contribution to an OSS community. These elements were used to facilitate the formation of a CoP. Self-efficacy was also used as a measure; an increase in self-efficacy is associated with the successful formation of a CoP. Finally the intent to continue, as reported by students, was measured to determine the potential contribution to the OSS community overall. This research was designed to use collaboration to support the formation of a CoP within the groups formed between students based on common interests in the OSS project. Additionally students were provided with a mentor from the community to assist in finding paths to contribute. The Ubuntu project was chosen for its commitment to diversity and its reputation for being a welcoming environment to newcomers, reducing the risk of negative community interactions for students. Written reflections were gathered at mid and end of term and used in conjunction with transcripts or reports of group meetings as well as emails between mentors and mentees. Additionally self-efficacy was measured at the beginning and end of the term. The results of this study show that this pedagogical paradigm supports student contribution. Contribution levels were found to be associated with the level of the formation of a CoP within each group and the use of mentors, as well as attending a live, hands-on bug triage demo and the Global Jam, to gather resources. It was also evident that students intend to continue participating at a rate higher than the average rate for newcomers trying to contribute without the type of support offered by this class. Further research into the examination of the use of reflective dialogue with mentors is recommended. It is also recommended that the results from the operationalization of the indicators of the formation of a CoP be used to assist in a more consistent formation of this important resource across more groups within the class. The results of this research point to the effectiveness of this paradigm to promote contributions to an OSS community. These contributions provide the skills students need to improve their attractiveness to future employers. This class also produced a number of students who intend to continue participating in OSS, providing a diverse pool of potential volunteers to the OSS community. / Graduation date: 2013

Thesis (M.Ing. (Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This paper seeks to describe the process by which a database-centric web application was redesigned and rewritten to take advantage of Apache’s Lucene - an open-source information retrieval software library written in the Java programming language. After the implementation of a Lucene-based text index of “semi-structured data”, a college radio station's card catalog application was able to deliver higher-quality search results in significantly less time than it was able to do using just a relational database alone. Additionally, the dramatic improvements in speed and performance even allowed the search results interface to be redesigned and enhanced with an improved pagination system and new features such as faceted search/filtering.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to illustrate how participants in leaderless based projects communicate with each other. Several studies have focused on technology-supported projects, such as open source projects, with an established project manager and goal. There is a lack, to the best of our knowledge, in studies that deal with the communication pattern in a leaderless computer supported collaborative project. Method: We have chosen to use a quantitative method where we systematically group several messages according to their content. This method was used in a similar study to illustrate the communication between participants involved in an open source project. We have taken the same Kripendorff based method and adapted it to our study by adding more descriptive variables. Theoretical perspectives: Manuel Castell discusses the aspects of a new communication power that is rooted in the individual as part of a larger creative audience. The collaborative works we have studies are prime examples of how the creative audience works together and of mass self‐communication. In order to analyze the potential motivations behind the participant’s involvement in these collaborative works, we have adopted the ideas of Preece and Shneidermans frame theory. They have identified 4 major roles in most onlinebased co‐operations and refer to them as reader, contributor, collaborator and leader. Result: Our results show that the communication in computer supported collaborative works is characterized by positive and energetic communication. The participants are all involved by their own will; they contribute because they want to. We believe this to be the major factor influencing the flow and form of communication between the participants. The majority of posts are comments to other participants or contributing posts that add to the progression of the discourse. We also have reason to believe that the use of smileys and embedded pictures is related to the tools available to the participants; the quicker and easier it is to add a picture the more likely the participants will use these tools.

Sammanfattning Öppen programvara kan enklast beskrivas som programvara där källkoden är tillgänglig, vilket gör det möjligt att modifiera, utveckla, kopiera och distribuera denna om så önskas (Statskontoret, 2004). Enligt Statskontorets hemsida (2004) används öppen programvara främst för att uppnå ett större oberoende av pris- och licensvillkor inom landets statliga institutioner. Eftersom nyttjandet av öppen programvara medför många fördelar anser Statskontoret (2005) att den offentliga förvaltningen ska beakta möjligheterna med denna typ av mjukvara i större utsträckning. I en rapport från Statskontoret (2004) om erfarenheter av öppen programvara inom den offentliga förvaltningen, anges att majoriteten har valt att anskaffa öppen programvara av besparingsskäl. Vi har i denna uppsats undersökt högskolors och universitets syn på öppen programvara. Detta för att erhålla kunskap om de grundläggande orsakerna bakom olika mjukvaruinvesteringar inom dessa lärosäten. I dagsläget används inte öppen programvara i den utsträckning som är möjlig inom högskolor och universitet i Sverige. Vad beror det på? Vilka faktorer eller kriterier vägs in vid mjukvaruinvesteringsbeslut inom dessa organisationer? Hur har utvecklingen av användandet av öppen programvara sett ut på högskolor och universitet i Sverige, historiskt sett? Syftet är att kartlägga orsakerna bakom investeringar i eller avsaknaden av öppen programvara på högskolor och universitet i Sverige. Då vi haft för avsikt att få en uppfattning om orsaker bakom investeringar i öppen programvara på högskolor och universitet i Sverige, har vi valt att göra kvalitativa intervjuer genom att besöka respektive studieobjekt. Detta då vi varit i behov av information som beskriver sakförhållanden, skeenden och ger uttryck för personliga uppfattningar, för att uppnå vårt syfte och besvara uppsatsens problemställning. När det gäller urvalet av respondenter för undersökningen består populationen av samtliga universitet och högskolor i Sverige, statliga såväl som privata. Vi har valt att begränsa vår undersökning till ett urval av populationen, där samplet består av tre lärosäten som har eller saknar erfarenheter av öppen programvara. De mest centrala iakttagelserna vi gjort i undersökningen är att samtliga universitet/högskolor som deltagit i undersökningen anger att investeringar i öppen programvara inte beror på besparingsskäl, tvärtom är denna typ av programvara ett dyrare alternativ för läroanstalterna. Något annat som observerats är att flera läroanstalter saknar en tydlig supportfunktion för öppen programvara. Statskontorets (2004) anger dock att öppen programvara främst används för att uppnå ett större oberoende av pris- och licensvillkor. Detta oberoende uppfattar läroanstalterna emellertid som mindre tryggt, då allt ansvar förs över på användaren själv, vad gäller uppdateringar, modifieringar etc. Detta överrensstämmer inte med det som anges i rapporten från Statskontorets (2004) vad gäller orsaker bakom investeringar i öppen programvara. Vi anser att universitet och högskolor i Sverige borde vara politiskt oberoende institutioner och ha ett ansvar som gentemot studenter. Detta genom att erbjuda produkter inom utbildningarnas områden som inte valts på grund av en stor aktör, vilkens makt på marknaden kan liknas vid ett monopol. Läroanstalterna har enligt vår åsikt en mycket viktig roll vad gäller den fortsatta utvecklingen och användandet av öppen programvara. Vi anser därför att dessa institutioner borde beakta valmöjligheten, inte endast på grund av ekonomiska skäl utan också för att bidra till en ökad konkurrens på mjukvarumarknaden. / Abstract Open Source Software (OSS) can be defined as software where the source code is accessible by anyone who wants to modify, develop, copy and/or distribute it (Statskontoret, 2004). According to the website of the Swedish government agency for public management (2004) OSS is utilized mainly to become more independent of pricing and licensing conditions within the public institutions in Sweden. As the use of OSS comprises a number of advantages, the agency for public management (2005) believes that the public sector should consider the possibility of using this type of software to a greater extent. In a report from the agency for public management (2004) about the experience of OSS within the public sector, it is stated that the majority have chosen to acquire OSS due to reduction in costs. In this essay we have examined universities view on OSS in order to obtain knowledge regarding the basic reasons behind different software investments within these institutions. Today OSS is not utilized to its full extent within institutions of higher education in Sweden. Why is that? What factors or criteria are taken into consideration when making software investment decisions and how has the use of this type of software evolved over the years within these institutions? The purpose of this essay is to survey the reasons behind investments in, or the lack of OSS within universities in Sweden. As our intention is to get an idea of the reasons behind investments in OSS within these institutions, we have chosen to make qualitative interviews by visiting each object for the study. We have chosen this method as we have been in need of information which describes the course of events and expresses individual opinions, in order to achieve the purpose of the essay and answer the questions stated in the presentation of the problem. Regarding the selection of respondents for the research, the population consists of all universities in Sweden, both public and private. We have chosen to limit the research to a selection of the population, where the sample consists of three universities which have or lack experience from OSS. The most important findings we have made in the research is that all universities that have participated states that investments made in OSS is not due to financial reasons, as they believe that larger investments in this type of software instead would increase the costs. Something else that we have observed is that several universities believe that OSS lacks an apparent support function. However, the agency for public management (2004) states that OSS mainly is used to become more independent of pricing and licensing conditions. This independency is on the other hand looked upon as less secure, by the universities, as the whole responsibility is resting on the shoulders of the user, concerning updates, modifications etc. This does not apply with what is stated in the reports from the Swedish agency for public management (2004) regard-ing the reasons behind investments in OSS. We believe that institutions of higher education should be politically independent and have a responsibility towards the students. This, by offering products within the educational areas that are not chosen due to the power of one multinational company, which bears the resemblance of a monopoly. Universities have according to our opinion a very important roll to play in the future of OSS. Hence we think these institutions should consider the option, not only due to financial reasons but also in order to contribute to an increased competition in the software market.

Die Chemnitzer Linux-Tage sind eine Veranstaltung rund um das Thema Open Source. Im Jahr 2013 wurden 106 Vorträge und Workshops gehalten. Der Band enthält ausführliche Beiträge zu 11 Hauptvorträgen sowie Zusammenfassungen zu 95 weiteren Vorträgen.

A new open source 3D reconstruction and evaluation pipeline is described, with a thorough description of the algorithms employed. A new evaluation framework is introduced, which is easy to use for comparison of state-of-the-art multiview reconstruction algorithms. The evaluation framework also includes tools for creating data sets which have ground truth. The source code is available under the GPL; a first for a complete end-to-end reconstruction system.