Peer review is seen as an important quality assurance mechanism in both industrial development and the open source software (OSS) community. The techniques for performing inspections have been well studied in industry; in OSS development, peer review practices are less well understood. In contrast to industry, where reviews are typically assigned to specific individuals, in OSS, changes are broadcast to hundreds of potentially interested stakeholders. What is surprising is that this approach works very well, despite concerns that reviews may be ignored, or that discussions will deadlock because too many uninformed stakeholders are involved. In this work we use a multi-case study methodology to develop a theory of OSS peer review. There are three research stages. In the first stage, we examine the policies of 25 OSS projects to understand the review processes used on successful OSS projects. We also select six projects for further analysis: Apache, Subversion, Linux, FreeBSD, KDE, and Gnome. In the second stage, using archival records from the six projects, we construct a series of metrics that produces measures similar to those used in traditional inspection experiments. We measure the frequency of review, the size and complexity of the contribution under review, the level of participation during review, the experience and expertise of the individuals involved in the review, the review interval, and number of issues discussed during review. We create statistical models of the review efficiency, review interval, and effectiveness, the issues discussed during review, to determine which measures have the largest impact on review efficacy. In the third stage, we use grounded theory to analyze 500 instances of peer review and interview ten core developers across the six projects. This approach allows us to understand why developers decide to perform reviews, what happens when reviews are ignored, how developers interact during a review, what happens when too many stakeholders are involved during review, and the effect of project size on the review techniques. Our findings provide insights into the simple, community-wide mechanisms and behaviours that developers use to effectively manage large quantities of reviews and other development discussions. The primary contribution of this work is a theory of OSS peer review. We find that OSS reviews can be described as (1) early, frequent reviews (2) of small, independent, complete contributions (3) that, despite being asynchronously broadcast to a large group of stakeholders, are reviewed by a small group of self-selected experts (4) resulting in an efficient and effective peer review technique. / Graduate

Background: Developing and maintaining software is resource expensive. Therefore many organizations and practitioners use Open Source Software(OSS) in commercial development to minimize resource expense. But, adopting OSS mandates the organizations and practitioners to assess and monitor the OSS for updates from the community. Previous literature proposes many assessment frameworks. Many are non-automated and use complex attributes that require a steep learning curve for practitioners to understand. The OSS assessments and monitoring choke the agility of the team and delay their time to market. Practitioners need automated quick assessments with easy-to-understand attributes to assist them during OSS adoption. After adoption, monitoring and upgrading OSS can be challenging. Therefore, organizations need automatic OSS monitoring and upgrading solutions capable of checking community updates for the OSS and upgrade the internally hosted OSS if the update is compliant automatically. Objectives: The objective of our thesis is to automate OSS assessments and monitoring using OSS assessment attributes that are easily understood by the practitioners. Methods: We performed a design science research at City Network to understand OSS assessments and monitoring in organizations and identified the attributes used by the practitioners. Additionally, we identified the attributes from the previous literature that were relevant for practitioners. Following the identification, we constructed an automated solution for OSS assessments and monitoring that was accepted by City Network. To evaluate the generalizability of our automated solution, we conducted interviews with practitioners outside City Network. Results: Our automated solution was praised for its ease of use and easy-to-understand attributes. Practitioners wanted their customizations on our automated solution with additional features and attributes to fully automate their OSS assessments. But our OSS monitoring and upgrading solution was criticized for lack of rigor in assessing an update. But, its program flow and usage at scale were appreciated by practitioners. Conclusions: Our automated solution was effective in automated assessing OSS before adoption. But, it was not capable of automating OSS monitoring and upgrading. With that said, the problem of OSS assessments and monitoring is relevant for many organizations and practitioners. Therefore, such research is essential to improve and streamline OSS adoption for organizations and practitioners. Additionally, it is worthwhile to research more OSS attributes that are relevant and easy to understand for the practitioners.

Devido às redes convergentes, os usuários dos produtos de telecomunicações passaram a ter disponíveis serviços mais completos, desde a simples possibilidade de escolha da tecnologia de acesso para os serviços de dados, passando por serviços com conteúdo multimídia com qualidade assegurada e usando diferentes tecnologias de acesso, entretanto este novo cenário traz consigo uma complexidade tecnológica que dificulta a escolha do produto mais apropriado a cada necessidade do usuário. O advento das redes convergentes permite que o usuário possa ter serviços que atendam as suas necessidades em termos de funcionalidade, mobilidade e qualidade, mas a escolha do produto mais adequado de cada provedora de telecomunicações não é fácil para a maioria dos usuários, portanto a presente tese propõe um modelo de negócios para o segmento de telecomunicações que, ao invés de prover produtos, passa a fornecer serviços adequados a cada necessidade do usuário, atendendo sua necessidade em termos de qualidade de serviços, permitindo melhor compreensão dos parâmetros da qualidade fornecida. O modelo de negócios proposto nesta tese cria quatro provedoras, sendo que três provedoras fornecem produtos de conteúdo (Provedora de Conteúdo), infraestrutura (Provedora de Infraestrutura) e acesso (Provedora de acesso), e uma provedora, chamada Provedora de Serviços, que fornecerá o serviço ao usuário final, que é formado pelos produtos das provedoras citadas. Além disso, a provedora de serviços ficará responsável pelo fornecimento do serviço que atenda as necessidades de mobilidade e qualidade de serviços adequada a cada usuário final. Esta tese, também, apresenta uma proposta de adequação do modelo e-TOM (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map) proposto pelo TMF (TeleManagement Forum) em atendimento ao novo modelo de negócios proposto, e uma arquitetura aberta baseada no NESSI (Networked European Software & Services Initiative) da comunidade européia que viabiliza o modelo de negócios proposto. O estudo de caso apresenta a implementação de um sistema de gestão de força de trabalho para empresas de telecomunicações baseado na arquitetura proposta que atende ao modelo de negócios proposto, essa implementação está sendo parcialmente financiada pela FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos) através do projeto SGSCENU-SISTEMA GESTOR DE SERVIÇOS CENTRADO NO USUÁRIO, convênio 01.08.0519.00, iniciado em março de 2009 com término previsto em março de 2011. O modelo de negócios proposto apresenta uma quebra de paradigma para o mercado de telecomunicações que é o foco no usuário final, e não nos produtos. No cenário proposto o usuário final seleciona o serviço que melhor atende à sua necessidade com a qualidade de serviços desejada e as provedoras de serviços fornecem serviços que melhor atendam a necessidade do usuário final, sem no entanto realizar grandes investimentos, pois pode utilizar os produtos fornecidos pelas demais provedoras. O modelo de negócios proposto necessita uma adequação nos processos de negócios, pois as provedoras passam a ser complementares entre si e compartilham produtos nas mais diversas situações. E para atender a esta característica é necessário uma arquitetura que integre os sistemas das provedoras de forma transparente, permitindo que a provedora de serviços forneça o serviço de acordo com a qualidade de serviço contratada pelo usuário final. / Due to convergent networks, telecommunications products users available now have more complete services, from simple choice of access technology to data services, to new services with multimedia content with assured quality and used different access technologies, however this new scenario brings with it a technological complexity makes it difficult to choose the product that suits every need of user. The advent of convergent networks allows the user may have services that meet their needs in terms of unctionality, mobility and quality, but choosing the most suitable product for every telecommunications provider is not easy for most users, so this thesis proposes a business model for the telecommunications segment that instead of providing products is to provide adequate services to meet every need of the user, given their need for quality services, allowing better understanding of the quality parameters supplied. The business model proposed in this thesis creates four providers being three providers provide content products (Content Provider), infrastructure (Infrastructure Provider) and access (Internet Service Provider) and a provider, called the Service Provider will provide the service to the end user, which is formed by the products of listed providers. In addition, the service provider will be responsible for providing service that meets the needs of mobility and quality of services tailored to each end user. This thesis also presents a proposal to adapt the model e-TOM (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map) proposed by the TeleManagement Forum (TMF) in response to the new business model proposed, and an open architecture based on NESSI (Networked European Software & Services Initiative) of the European community that enables the business model proposed. The study case describes the implementation of a management system of labor for telecommunications companies based on the proposed architecture that addresses the business proposed model, this implementation is being partially financed by FINEP (Financier of Studies and Projects) project SGSCENU-SYSTEM MANAGER SERVICES focused on the user agreement 01.08.0519.00, started in March 2009 with completion expected in March 2011. The proposed business model presents a paradigm shift for the telecommunications market that is the focus on the end user, and not the products. In the proposed scenario the end user selects the service that best fits your need with the quality of services desired, and service providers to provide services that best meet the need of the end user, without making major investments because you can use the products supplied by other providers. The proposed business model needs an appropriate business processes, because the providers become complementary to each other and share products in a variety of situations. And to accommodate this feature you need an architecture that integrates the systems of providers in a transparent manner, allowing the service provider provides the service according to the quality of service contracted by the end user.

Devido às redes convergentes, os usuários dos produtos de telecomunicações passaram a ter disponíveis serviços mais completos, desde a simples possibilidade de escolha da tecnologia de acesso para os serviços de dados, passando por serviços com conteúdo multimídia com qualidade assegurada e usando diferentes tecnologias de acesso, entretanto este novo cenário traz consigo uma complexidade tecnológica que dificulta a escolha do produto mais apropriado a cada necessidade do usuário. O advento das redes convergentes permite que o usuário possa ter serviços que atendam as suas necessidades em termos de funcionalidade, mobilidade e qualidade, mas a escolha do produto mais adequado de cada provedora de telecomunicações não é fácil para a maioria dos usuários, portanto a presente tese propõe um modelo de negócios para o segmento de telecomunicações que, ao invés de prover produtos, passa a fornecer serviços adequados a cada necessidade do usuário, atendendo sua necessidade em termos de qualidade de serviços, permitindo melhor compreensão dos parâmetros da qualidade fornecida. O modelo de negócios proposto nesta tese cria quatro provedoras, sendo que três provedoras fornecem produtos de conteúdo (Provedora de Conteúdo), infraestrutura (Provedora de Infraestrutura) e acesso (Provedora de acesso), e uma provedora, chamada Provedora de Serviços, que fornecerá o serviço ao usuário final, que é formado pelos produtos das provedoras citadas. Além disso, a provedora de serviços ficará responsável pelo fornecimento do serviço que atenda as necessidades de mobilidade e qualidade de serviços adequada a cada usuário final. Esta tese, também, apresenta uma proposta de adequação do modelo e-TOM (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map) proposto pelo TMF (TeleManagement Forum) em atendimento ao novo modelo de negócios proposto, e uma arquitetura aberta baseada no NESSI (Networked European Software & Services Initiative) da comunidade européia que viabiliza o modelo de negócios proposto. O estudo de caso apresenta a implementação de um sistema de gestão de força de trabalho para empresas de telecomunicações baseado na arquitetura proposta que atende ao modelo de negócios proposto, essa implementação está sendo parcialmente financiada pela FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos) através do projeto SGSCENU-SISTEMA GESTOR DE SERVIÇOS CENTRADO NO USUÁRIO, convênio 01.08.0519.00, iniciado em março de 2009 com término previsto em março de 2011. O modelo de negócios proposto apresenta uma quebra de paradigma para o mercado de telecomunicações que é o foco no usuário final, e não nos produtos. No cenário proposto o usuário final seleciona o serviço que melhor atende à sua necessidade com a qualidade de serviços desejada e as provedoras de serviços fornecem serviços que melhor atendam a necessidade do usuário final, sem no entanto realizar grandes investimentos, pois pode utilizar os produtos fornecidos pelas demais provedoras. O modelo de negócios proposto necessita uma adequação nos processos de negócios, pois as provedoras passam a ser complementares entre si e compartilham produtos nas mais diversas situações. E para atender a esta característica é necessário uma arquitetura que integre os sistemas das provedoras de forma transparente, permitindo que a provedora de serviços forneça o serviço de acordo com a qualidade de serviço contratada pelo usuário final. / Due to convergent networks, telecommunications products users available now have more complete services, from simple choice of access technology to data services, to new services with multimedia content with assured quality and used different access technologies, however this new scenario brings with it a technological complexity makes it difficult to choose the product that suits every need of user. The advent of convergent networks allows the user may have services that meet their needs in terms of unctionality, mobility and quality, but choosing the most suitable product for every telecommunications provider is not easy for most users, so this thesis proposes a business model for the telecommunications segment that instead of providing products is to provide adequate services to meet every need of the user, given their need for quality services, allowing better understanding of the quality parameters supplied. The business model proposed in this thesis creates four providers being three providers provide content products (Content Provider), infrastructure (Infrastructure Provider) and access (Internet Service Provider) and a provider, called the Service Provider will provide the service to the end user, which is formed by the products of listed providers. In addition, the service provider will be responsible for providing service that meets the needs of mobility and quality of services tailored to each end user. This thesis also presents a proposal to adapt the model e-TOM (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map) proposed by the TeleManagement Forum (TMF) in response to the new business model proposed, and an open architecture based on NESSI (Networked European Software & Services Initiative) of the European community that enables the business model proposed. The study case describes the implementation of a management system of labor for telecommunications companies based on the proposed architecture that addresses the business proposed model, this implementation is being partially financed by FINEP (Financier of Studies and Projects) project SGSCENU-SYSTEM MANAGER SERVICES focused on the user agreement 01.08.0519.00, started in March 2009 with completion expected in March 2011. The proposed business model presents a paradigm shift for the telecommunications market that is the focus on the end user, and not the products. In the proposed scenario the end user selects the service that best fits your need with the quality of services desired, and service providers to provide services that best meet the need of the end user, without making major investments because you can use the products supplied by other providers. The proposed business model needs an appropriate business processes, because the providers become complementary to each other and share products in a variety of situations. And to accommodate this feature you need an architecture that integrates the systems of providers in a transparent manner, allowing the service provider provides the service according to the quality of service contracted by the end user.

The Open Source Software Development (OSSD) model has launched products in rapid succession and with high quality, without following traditional quality practices of accepted software development models (Raymond 1999). Some OSSD projects challenge established quality assurance approaches, claiming to be successful through partial contrary techniques of standard software development. However, empirical studies of quality assurance practices for Open Source Software (OSS) are rare (Glass 2001). Therefore, further research is required to evaluate the quality assurance processes and methods within the OSSD model. The aim of this research is to improve the understanding of quality assurance practices under the OSSD model. The OSSD model is characterised by a collaborative, distributed development approach with public communication, free participation, free entry to the project for newcomers and unlimited access to the source code. The research examines applied quality assurance practices from a process view rather than from a product view. The research follows ideographic and nomothetic methodologies and adopts an antipositivist epistemological approach. An empirical research of applied quality assurance practices in OSS projects is conducted through the literature research. The survey research method is used to gain empirical evidence about applied practices. The findings are used to validate the theoretical knowledge and to obtain further expertise about practical approaches. The findings contribute to the development of a quality assurance framework for standard OSSD approaches. The result is an appropriate quality model with metrics that the requirements of the OSSD support. An ideographic approach with case studies is used to extend the body of knowledge and to assess the feasibility and applicability of the quality assurance framework. In conclusion, the study provides further understanding of the applied quality assurance processes under the OSSD model and shows how a quality assurance framework can support the development processes with guidelines and measurements.

This research provides a detailed account of Open Source Software (OSS) development in the context of developing countries (DCs) by exploring the specific case of Chinese indigenous Linux design and development. It builds an interdisciplinary, socio-technical, analytical framework from the perspective of science and technology studies (STS), in particular the social shaping of technology (SST), infrastructural studies and international technology transfer. It also covers the fields of economic analysis, policy studies and development studies. The research investigates the adaptation process of a unique OSS with infrastructural features – Linux in the context of China by conducting case studies on both embedded Linux and platform Linux products developed by two Chinese Linux providers. Drawing upon the concepts developed in the SST perspective and infrastructural studies, this research addresses both the dynamism and continuity of OSS. In order to avoid the shortcomings of existing social scientific study on OSS, we applied social and biography of artefacts (BoA) approaches to examine the evolution of Chinese Linux by mapping out the key actors, investigating the linkages between them, and probing deeply into the intricate interplays among these actors over time. A detailed longitudinal and contextual analysis has been undertaken through a qualitative historical case study of the evolution of both Chinese embedded Linux and platform Linux from 1998-2008. The empirical data reveals that the local adaptation and further innovation of Chinese Linux is a ‘generification’ process, i.e. a process of design and developing generic Linux solutions for diverse local users. Theoretically, the understanding of the socio-technical interfaces of the software (seeking, identifying, categorising local users/intermediaries, as well as collaborating with key players associated with the particular software) are central elements for software technology transfer and local technological capabilities building. The findings also throw the light on the crucial importance of government role in providing incentives and institutional measures for Linux adaptation in China. In particular, it highlights the challenges concerning the socio-technical specificities of infrastructural software, like Linux OS (operating system) and the particular relevance to DCs as technology adapters. Finally, this study throws light on the policy and practice for China’s future Linux development, and the implications for other DCs.

Usability is one of the important quality attributes. Open source software products are well known for their efficiency and effectiveness. Lack of usability in OSS (Open Source Software) products will result in poor usage of the product. In OSS development there is no usability team, and one could therefore expect that the usability would be low for these products. In order to find out if this was really the case we made a usability evaluation using a questionnaire for four OSS products. The questionnaire was based on a review of existing literature. This questionnaire was presented to 17 people who are working with open source products. This evaluation showed that the overall usability was above average for all the four products. It seems, however, that the lack of a usability team has made the OSS products less easy to use for inexperienced users. Based on the responses to questionnaire and a literature review, a set of guidelines and hints for increasing the usability of OSS products was defined.

This thesis reports on a pilot project which was developed to meet the needs of specific research groups for a collaborative workspace. The main components of the project include a digital library, online discussion forum, adaptive hypermedia engine and a statement database. Such a system was deemed necessary because of today's global network of researchers who are divided by both location and time. The need therefore exists for a system which allows researchers to work on a project without the need to be in the same physical location. Such a system is called an online collaborative workspace. An online collaborative workspace allows researchers to work together on projects by providing various means of sharing information and resources. The main research question addressed in this study is:  What are the user requirements and design specifications of an online collaborative workspace developed in open source software? In order to answer this main question, the following sub-questions need to be addressed:  What are the main design principles and functionalities of such a collaborative workspace?  How can they be integrated in developing a modular open source framework?  To what extent can such a framework be customised for implementation in new or existing collaborative projects?  What are the usability requirements of such an online collaborative workspace and how should one go about to test the usability of such a framework? Before being able to accurately determine the user requirements of an online collaborative workspace, we first need to determine which features exist in current systems. The main question driving the literature survey therefore is:  What are the main components of current online collaborative workspaces as reported in the literature? Chapter 2 of this report is devoted to identifying and researching the various components that define an online collaborative workspace. Each of these components are investigated in detail by means of informal interviews as well as a literature survey. The components that were identified include a digital library, online discussion forum and collaborative workspace. In addition to identifying the various components, this chapter also addresses the motivation for the use of open source software and the importance of usability. With the information obtained in chapter 2, chapter 3 sets out to develop a framework which addresses each of the components that were identified. The various features and properties of each component were identified and decisions were made with regard to the best method of implementation. In addition to the components that were developed, this chapter also focuses on various design implications such as modularity and the use of open source software. Chapter 4 describes the various projects where the framework was implemented. For each of the projects the user requirements, customisations and usability issues are addressed. This chapter highlights the framework's ability to be customised to suit the diverse needs of research projects. The final chapter provides a set of conclusions summarising how the main objectives of the study were addressed. Moreover, the limitations of the study are addressed and an outline is provided as to how these limitations are to be addressed in future work. / Dissertation (MIS (Multimedia))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Information Science / unrestricted

Uppsatsen analyserar de mervärdesskatteregler som införs genom E-handelspaketet och fokuserar då på lagstiftningen som berör så kallade plattformsföretag. Syftet med arbetet är att identifiera och diskutera potentiella problem med lagstiftningen samt presentera vissa lösningsförslag. Utöver det presenteras alternativa metoder för att beskatta distanshandel som inte ålägger plattformsföretag skattskyldighet. I huvudsak är arbetet inriktat på den EU-rättsliga regleringen men även den svenska implementeringen av lagstiftningen diskuteras kortfattat. De huvudsakliga problemen med E-handelspaketets reglering av plattformsföretag som identifieras i uppsatsen är dels problem med tolkning av direktivet och dels praktiska problem med tillämpningen. De främsta tolkningsproblemen i lagstiftningen är frågorna om vad som är ett möjliggörande av distanshandel med elektroniskt gränssnitt samt hur långt ansvarsbegränsningsregeln för plattformsföretag kan utsträckas. De största praktiska problemen är risken för missbruk av plattformsföretagens IOSS-nummer, lagstiftningens komplexitet som gör det svårt att förutse konsekvenserna för gemene man samt risken för konkurrenssnedvridningar där stora plattformar gynnas framför små och medelstora plattformar. Några av de alternativa metoder som går att använda för att beskatta distanshandel är nyttjandet av blockchain-teknik, split payment method samt direktrapportering av skattepliktiga transaktioner. Alla dessa metoder har både för- och nackdelar med att ålägga plattformsföretag skattskyldighet, men sammantaget är troligtvis en reglering av plattformsföretag den lämpligaste lösningen i dagsläget. Arbetets slutsats är att regleringen av plattformsföretag i E-handelspaketet i stort är en positiv förändring som förenklar för nästan samtliga marknadsaktörer och kommer bidra till en större regelefterlevnad även för företag etablerade utanför EU. Däremot finns flera identifierade problem med lagstiftningen som måste åtgärdas av lagstiftaren.

Procedimentos de levantamento do seio maxilar têm sido realizados para aumentar o volume ósseo e promover a estabilidade do implante, na região posterior de maxilas severamente atrofiadas. Ao longo dos anos, resultados de vários estudos demonstraram que alguns substitutos ósseos podem suportar implantes em função, após o levantamento de seio maxilar, igual ou melhor quando utilizado o osso autógeno. Neste estudo, foi avaliado o comportamento de um substituto ósseo completamente biodegradável (OsteoScaf™) no modelo experimental de levantamento de seio maxilar em coelhos. Além disso, ele foi comparado com o osso autógeno e outros dois substitutos ósseos, não totalmente biodegradáveis, disponíveis comercialmente (Bio-Oss® e BoneCeramic®). Avaliação clínica, tomografia computadorizada por feixe cônico, microtomografia computadorizada, análises microscópicas e análise molecular, através da técnica de PCR, foram realizadas após 2, 4 e 8 semanas de cirurgia. O levantamento de seio maxilar utilizando o osso autógeno demonstrou maior reabsorção, ao longo do tempo, comparado aos substitutos ósseos, os quais revelaram maior neoformação óssea após 8, 4 e 2 semanas, respectivamente. O grupo Bio-Oss® apresentou maior neoformação óssea, ao longo do tempo, quando comparado aos grupos Osteoscaf™ e BoneCeramic®, os quais foram qualitativamente emelhantes. O grupo BoneCeramic® mostrou uma resposta celular de células gigantes até 8 semanas. Concluiu-se que os substitutos ósseos, neste estudo, obtiveram melhor desempenho do que o osso autógeno, e o OsteoScaf™ demonstrou maior reabsorção do que os outros grupos, em todos períodos. / Maxillary sinus augmentation procedures have been applied to increase bone volume and to promote stability of implants in the severely atrophied posterior maxilla. Over the years, the outcomes of several studies have demonstrated that some bone substitutes can support implants in function after sinus augmentation as well as, or better than those with autogenous bone. Our experimental model evaluated the behavior of a fully biodegradable bone substitute (OsteoScaf™) in a rabbit sinus lift procedure. We compared this with autogenous bone and other two available non-biodegradable bone substitutes (Bio-Oss® and BoneCeramic®). Clinical evaluation, Cone Beam Computed Tomography, Microcomputed Tomography, microscopic and molecular evaluation were used for data analysis at 2, 4 and 8 weeks after sinus augmentation. Autogenous bone was more resorbed over time than the other materials. All bone substitutes showed more bone formation at 8, 4 and 2 weeks, respectively. Bio-Oss® showed more bone formation/timepoint than Osteoscaf™ and Boneceramic®, which were similar. Boneceramic® showed a florid giant cell response up to 8 weeks. We concluded that the bone graft materials all performed better than autogenous bone and OsteoScaf™ showed comparative bone growth yet greater degradation than the other two materials.