Track: Internet and the Digital Economy
Minitrack: Open Movements: FLOSS, Open Contents and Open
--------------- Communities

This Minitrack also accepts practical research about mining software engineering data related to FLOSS ( Free, Libre and Open Source Software ) development projects and repositories, and OC development projects. Quantitative analysis of these data will provide a better understanding of the underlying processes behind these initiatives, which is an interesting field still with many questions still to be solved. This analysis may also forecast future trends and evolution patterns of this projects. We also admit conceptual and practical analyses about FLOSS and OC quality, regarding both the creation process and the product, a very active area in which many recent studies has been undertaken.

Additionally, this Minitrack provides a place for research and conceptual work to address a variety of questions such as research examining the implications of open content from economic and policy perspectives . As well, the Minitrack welcomes studies of the deployment of FLOSS and OC Studies exploring the motivations behind why individuals contribute to projects without pay. Studies of the structure and function of FLOSS development teams and OC communities are also in the scope of this Minitrack, including analysis of the social networks created by those communities and their evolution over time.

On top of that, this Minitrack also welcomes research and conceptual work about Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, mashups and their relationships with OC and OComm, thus providing a convenient place for discussion about the interactions among these fields. Undoubtedly, open contents will help in expanding these new technologies, permitting a higher level of contents interchanging among different websites and multimedia repositories. Many companies are also currently exploring the multiple benefits they could achieve with the introduction of these new concepts in their information systems infrastructure.

Finally, research and case studies about adoption, implementation and use of OC and FLOSS in diverse areas, like education, health care, public administrations, mass media etc. is also accepted. Exploring successful and fail in adopting and using OC projects and FLOSS solutions will provide a better understanding about the usefulness of these initiatives, along with possible ways for improving their products and creation processes to better address the needs of users. Furthermore, research about FLOSS fostering interoperability between information systems and data repositories is also welcomed. In recent years, public administrations and private companies as well recognize the great advantage of FLOSS solutions to avoid interoperability problems, as they are frequently implemented using public, open and well-known protocols.

Topics and research areas include, but are not limited to:
* Issues in distributed software development for FLOSS
* Issues in content development in OC and OComm
* Distributed collaboration in and coordination of FLOSS and OC development teams
* Distributed group development for FLOSS
* Community development and its evolution in OC
* FLOSS teams as communities of practice
* Leadership, management and policies in FLOSS, OC groups and Open Communities
* Creators roles in OC, and OComm and how they evolve over time
* Implementation of FLOSS systems
* Distributed project management and distributed team management
* Knowledge management and learning in OComm, OC and FLOSS development
* Member satisfaction and effectiveness in OComm, OC and FLOSS development
* Analysis and assessment of software development processes for FLOSS
* Motivations and ideologies in OC, OComm and FLOSS
* User involvement and user support in FLOSS development
* FLOSS systems supporting OC projects
* Web 20, Enterprise 20, mashups and their relationships with OC and OComm
* Forecasting the evolution of FLOSS and OC projects, as well as OComm
* Application, implementation and cases of use of OC and FLOSS projects in education, health care, public administrations and mass media
* Social networks in FLOSS, OC projects and OComm

Co-chairs:
Felipe Ortega (Primary Contact)
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
GSyC/LibreSoft
Tulipán s/n28933 Mostoles, Madrid, Spain
Phone: +34-91-488-8523
Email: jfelipe@gsyc.es

Kevin Crowston
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
348 Hinds HallSyracuse, NY 13244-4100 USA
Phone: +1-315-443-1676
Email: crowston@syr.edu
URL: http://crowston.syr.edu/