Howison rutgers-open superposition
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Presentation on research on the organization of open source software production, describing the theory of open superposition.
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Howison rutgers-open superposition
- 1. James Howison Collaboration through Open Superposition: A theory of the open source way CC Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baggis/ Rutgers LIS Lecture Series 14 April 2015 Work supported by the NSF 03-41475, 04–14468, 05-27457 and 07–08437 @jameshowison
- 2. “Let’s do this the open source way?” Sounds great, right? Lots of people volunteering for the enjoyment of it, working together, sharing stuff, meritocracy, contributing stuff, fighting the man, all without raising money or top- down management. Open innovation, open platforms, open hardware, open data, open government, open NASA, citizen science … @jameshowison
- 5. What ought we learn from Open Source? • Highly successful distributed work – In surprising circumstances: highly interdependent work, many failures, at distance, while working with unreliable volunteers! • Literature focuses on what Rousseau et al. 2006 call teamwork rather than taskwork • e.g., Agerfalk and Fitzgerald 2008; von Krogh and von Hippel 2003; Scacchi et al. 2006; Stewart and Gosain 2006 • Less study of what they are working on, despite the importance of technology to Information Systems – Technology as “work in progress” Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) – Only small number of studies examining what is built (Zammuto et al. 2007, Malhotra and Majchrzak 2012) @jameshowison
- 6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gubatron/31024 Outsourcing to an unknown workforce? (Agerfalk and Fitzgerald @jameshowison
- 7. A research arc for theory development • Participant Observation – one case – live participation and observation • Replication – two cases chosen by replication logic – Archival study • Theory development – Develop theory and demonstrate it’s usefulness @jameshowison
- 8. Goal: An image of FLOSS production CC Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/anthea/ @jameshowison
- 10. Task: The Container Column @jameshowison
- 11. How it was built @jameshowison
- 14. Task: “Web Groups” https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=DF0FB757-56BA-45D7-A1EA-262EB7A5B3DC@mac.com June 2003 (Email) I really want to use this, but the conditions have never quite been right - either I was waiting for … RSS+RDF (now looks like it'll never happen) or … an XML bibliographic file format … (could happen now, but I ran out of free time). @jameshowison
- 15. What didn’t happen Image Credit: TreeGrid.com marketing materials @jameshowison
- 16. Task: “Web Groups” https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=DF0FB757-56BA-45D7-A1EA-262EB7A5B3DC@mac.com https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_name=7394DD78-A02E-11D7-AFC1-0003931E45D0%40mac.com June 2003 (Email) I really want to use this, but the conditions have never quite been right - either I was waiting for … RSS+RDF (now looks like it'll never happen) or … an XML bibliographic file format … (could happen now, but I ran out of free time). Jan 2007 (Email with patch): It was much easier than I expected it to be because the existing groups code (and search groups code) was very easy to extend. Kudos - I wouldn't have tried it if so much hadn't already been solved well. Thanks! @jameshowison
- 17. Discovery Findings 1. Individual work with personal motivations 2. Superposition of layers 3. Productive Deferral CC Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/jvk/ @jameshowison
- 18. But that’s just one case! (and what’s the point of theorizing about idiosyncratic situations?) @jameshowison
- 19. To the Archives! The evidence is here, somewhere. CC Credit: http://www.flickr.com/ photos/hamadryades/ @jameshowison
- 20. Replication: Fire and Gaim • Specific RQs: – What proportion of work was individual? – Any evidence of “productive deferral”? • Fire and Gaim – Multi-protocol instant messaging clients – Community-based open source – Similar task and collaboration infrastructure to BibDesk @jameshowison
- 21. Tasks: changes to shared outcomes Version Number Headings and Indenting Bullet Points Developer Initials Tracker Numbers @jameshowison
- 22. Release Notes Dev Email Bug Tracker RFE TrackerUser Forum TaskOutcome Task Relevant Documents TaskOutcome Task Relevant Documents TaskOutcome Task Relevant Documents CVS Search and assign Relevant Documents @jameshowison
- 24. Illustrative Individual Work 30 (of 106) tasks consisted of a single Action: Core Production@jameshowison
- 27. Deferral • E.g. Fire Task 9: – March 2003 • a user requests that the away message only be sent when it changes. • one of the developers assigns the request to himself, indicating acceptance of this as a desirable feature. – October 2003 • Different developer re-assigns the feature to himself and says, • This is possible now with the `once' option for how often to send away messages. We just need to reset the message count when changing state.... I think I have a fix for this... probably will check it in the next week or so. • Fix checked in @jameshowison
- 28. An image of FLOSS production: Open Superposition • Work is done in Tasks that are – Individual – Short – Layered • Complex work is often deferred – Until it is easier (doesn’t always happen!) Other types of work build on this base @jameshowison
- 29. A model of software development @jameshowison
- 30. Superposition Reference Display Time 1 Reference Display Container Column Time 3Dev Time Container Column @jameshowison
- 31. Missing step in Complex Work RSS+RDF Web Groups XML or RSS+RDF Web Groups Time 1 Time 3Dev Time (one not both) ? @jameshowison
- 32. Multi-person interdependent work ("Co-work") Time 1 RSS+RDF Time 3 RSS+RDF Web Groups Web Groups Interpersonal dependency Dev Time Undermines self locus of control, autonomy and, since failure of one is failure of all, anticipation of payoffs. @jameshowison
- 33. Productive Deferral Dev TimeTime 1 Deferral Time (2 years)…… Reconsideration Time n Groups Search Search Groups Independent superposition continues, resulting in: Web Groups Groups Search Search Groups Web Groups @jameshowison
- 34. Theorizing 1. Why are these patterns of work observed? 2. How can complex software result from this way of working? 3. Under what socio-technical contingencies is this likely to be successful? @jameshowison
- 35. Motivation and Experience • Ke and Zhang (2010) based on Ryan and Deci (2000). Highest effort from: 1. Anticipated payoffs (extrinsic or intrinsic) 2. Locus of regulation (self over other) 3. Positive affect (autonomy, competence and relatedness) Individual tasks in shared volunteer environment match extremely well @jameshowison
- 36. Why these patterns of individual work and deferral? • Fewest dependencies, lowest coordination challenges and costs • Closest match to motivational situation of FLOSS participants. – Increases autonomy without eliminating relatedness @jameshowison
- 37. Ok, but can this really work? • Software development is highly complex, interdependent, work (e.g., Herbsleb et al. 2001)) • Can such simple steps really get the job done? @jameshowison
- 38. Imagine trying to plan this 1. Identify desired outcomes (design) 2. Design a task sequence that reaches them 3. Find people who are: – Motivated to do each task – Able to do each task – At just the right time Crippling search costs! @jameshowison
- 39. Application-led search • Openness and availability of application • Task identification through situated use (e.g., Suchman 1987) “Porches fill in by stages, not all at once, you know. ... it happens that way because [the family] can always visualize the next stage based on what’s already there” (Brand 1995, quoting an architect) @jameshowison
- 40. But why does deferral make things easier? • Layered tasks makes deferral more likely to be productive • Small layers can compose in different ways. They provide option value. (e.g., Baldwin and Clark 2001) • Small layers are easier to understand, especially over time. (e.g., Dabbish, 2011; Boudreau at al 2011) @jameshowison
- 41. @jameshowison
- 42. Contingencies for Open superposition • Attributes of object of work – Layerability – Low instantiation costs – Low distribution costs • Irrevocable openness • Time @jameshowison
- 43. Layers vs Steps CC Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18378305@N00/742 6136724/ CC Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrnoded/2 997160501/ @jameshowison
- 44. Irrevocable openness Free and Open Source Licenses prevent this. CC Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bantam1 0/5637893667/ @jameshowison
- 45. Time == Money CC Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/opacity/1 600562651/ This guy hates to wait @jameshowison
- 46. What to learn from FLOSS? • Much excitement about FLOSS about easing interdependent collaboration – Studies of leadership, governance, technologies (e.g. CVS), culture, processes … • What if the “something else” is simpler than that? @jameshowison
- 47. Redesigning work for Superposition • Irrevocable openness (licenses) – Ensure the “rug” can’t be pulled from under • Open access for situated searching – How can we conduct the widest search to match interests and motivations? • Layerable artifact with independent payoffs – Can we build up small contributions? • Time – the hardest aspect of all? – How long can we wait for success? @jameshowison
- 48. New research: Open superposition in Scientific Software? • Similarities: – Software and a culture of openness – Use-value motivation and open search • Differences: – Limited userbase – Grant funding is a kind of investment – Academic reputation as motivation discourages integration • New NSF CAREER grant to study transitions from grants to peer production – Six initial case studies, then panel study of SISI NSF program @jameshowison
- 49. Open Superposition Howison, J., & Crowston, K. (2014). Collaboration through open superposition: A theory of the open source way. MIS Quarterly, 38(1), 29–50. @jameshowison
Notas del editor
- This (Gaudi’s masterpiece) … lots of different ways to do this. Individually Teammode -> concurrently, sequentially Accretively/Stigmergically? Lots of study of these modes in organization science, including greats like Simon, Mintzberg and Thompson.
- Turn this … into
- Zammuto, writing with Ann Marchazk and Samar Faraj.
- Has this guy figured out the delicate dance of working well at distance, on highly interdependent work, all while working with unreliable volunteers?
- Need to return to these.
- First contact through the application itself. Using it in my day to day as a doctoral student.
- Tasks tended to be primarily undertaken by an individual programmer in a relatively short period of time at the developer’s own behest, motivation, and timing. Point of this is to show how work typically gets done. To give a narrative image of Solo Work.
- Roslyn Public Library, WA. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsl-libdev/5140646741/ When you pull out the foundation things stop working. Big job, what didn’t happen was a work breakdown
- The founder emphasized that the task had become “much easier” in the intervening years because of the incremental layered work of other developers; work undertaken for other features that just happened to also support Web Groups. The work taken while the task was languishing had prepared the ground so that a developer working alone in a matter of days could complete a feature that earlier had been too much work to even begin.
- They didn’t break the task down into components, assign them to people and bring things back together in the end.
- End of Slide Timing: 7 minutes
- Alone or Together? End of Slide Timing: 11 minutes
- 2 mins
- 2 mins
- This plus Illustrations: 5 minutes
- The early Actions in these Tasks were all coded as Support, usually feature requests or posts by non-developers demonstrating that a feature was desirable (light squares in Figure 3). Close inspection shows that all the production work (dark triangles in Figure 3) for these tasks was completed relatively quickly at the end of the task, during the release period, even on those tasks that had been outstanding for months
- End of Slide Timing: 20
- Payoff is immediate, and provided an individual coder has needed skills and time, layers like this generate no interpersonal dependencies.
- Web Groups has a payoff, but requires a step of (RSS+RDF) that does not have a direct payoff. The two elements are too large for one programmer to undertake in the time available, the work cannot proceed.
- Web Groups has a payoff, but requires a step of (RSS+RDF) that does not have a direct payoff. The two elements are too large for one programmer to undertake in the time available, the work cannot proceed.
- having adequate motivation depends on whether an actor expects the task to provide anticipated payoffs (intrinsic or extrinsic), the locus of regulation (from self to other) and whether the prospect of the task generates positive affect, which in turn depends on whether the actor’s 23 Collaboration through open superposition experience of the project provides an expectation of autonomy, competence and relatedness. The conduct of such individual tasks in a volunteer environment ensures a local locus of control while satisfying needs for autonomy, without undermining relatedness.
- Huseyin and Anitesh Barua (here), Chris Forman, Chris Kemerer, Parnas
- Williamson 1981
- Tends to throw up tasks that are ready made for the sequence and come from developers with motivations (or can be communicated quickly and thus motivate a developer).
- Layers, in this sense, are different from generic steps because each layer creates an (adequately) finished artifact.
- Foundations don’t work well when someone can pull a component out. FLOSS licenses prevent this. f a contributor is free to remove their layers, then all subsequent work is not superposition but a special kind of co-work (because the layers are not motivationally independent): each layer depends on continued non-revocation of its foundation, a long-term personal interdependency
- Productive deferral and open task search take time. Investment undermines ability to wait.
- Adding socio-technical attributes to “job design” theory (Hackman and Oldham, 1974; Grant et al, 2010)