|
Archive@NYU >
NET Institute >
NET Institute Working Papers Series >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/29477
|
| Title: | Microstructure of Collaboration: The Network of Open Source Software |
| Authors: | Fershtman, Chaim - Tel Aviv University
Gandal, Neil - Tel Aviv University |
| Keywords: | open source, network, Microstructure of Collaboration |
| Issue Date: | 2008 |
| Series/Report no.: | Net Institute Working Paper;08-01 |
| Abstract: | The open source model is a form of software development with source code
that is typically made available to all interested parties. At the core
of this process is a decentralized production process: open source
software development is done by a network of unpaid software developers.
Using data from Sourceforge.net, the largest repository of Open Source
Software (OSS) projects and contributors on the Internet, we construct
two related networks: A Project network and a Contributor network.
Knowledge spillovers may be closely related to the structure of such
networks, since contributors who work on several projects likely
exchange information and knowledge. Defining the number of downloads as
output we finds that (i) additional contributors are associated with an
increase in output, but that additional contributors to projects in the
giant component are associated with greater output gains than additional
contributors to projects outside of the giant component; (ii)
Betweenness centrality of the project is positively associated with the
number of downloads. (iii) Closeness centrality of the project appears
also to be positively associated with downloads, but the effect is not
statistically significant over all specifications. (iv) Controlling for
the correlation between these two measures of centrality (betweenness
and closeness), the degree is not positively associated with the number
of downloads. (v) The average closeness centrality of the contributors
that participated in a project is positively correlated with the success
of the project. These results suggest that there are positive spillovers
of knowledge for projects occupying critical junctures in the
information flow. When we define projects as connected if and only if
they had at least two contributors in common, we again find that
additional contributors are associated with an increase in output, and
again find that this increase is much higher for projects with strong
ties than other projects in the giant component. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/29477 |
| Appears in Collections: | NET Institute Working Papers Series
|
All items in Faculty Digital Archive are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved.
|
