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Twidale, M.B.: The usability of open source software. (2003)

by D M Nichols
Venue:First Monday
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Understanding knowledge sharing activities in free/open source software projects

by Sulayman K. Sowe, Ioannis Stamelos, Lefteris Angelis - Journal of Systems and Software , 2007
"... Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) projects are people-oriented and knowledge intensive software development environments. Many researchers focused on mailing lists to study coding activities of software developers. How expert software developers interact with each other and with non-developers in th ..."
Abstract - Cited by 33 (3 self) - Add to MetaCart
Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) projects are people-oriented and knowledge intensive software development environments. Many researchers focused on mailing lists to study coding activities of software developers. How expert software developers interact with each other and with non-developers in the use of community products have received little attention. This paper discusses the altruistic sharing of knowledge between knowledge providers and knowledge seekers in the Developer and User mailing lists of the Debian project. We analyze the posting and replying activities of the participants by counting the number of email messages they posted to the lists and the number of replies they made to questions others posted. We found out that participants interact and share their knowledge a lot, their positing activity is fairly highly correlated with their replying activity, the characteristics of posting and replying activities are different for different kinds of lists, and the knowledge sharing activity of self-organizing Free/Open Source communities could best be explained in terms of what we called ‘‘Fractal Cubic Distribution’ ’ rather than the power-law distribution mostly reported in the literature. The paper also proposes what could be researched in knowledge sharing activities in F/OSS projects mailing list and for what purpose. The research findings add to our understanding of knowledge sharing activities in F/OSS projects.
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.... The success of these products has changed the ecology and dynamics of F/OSS communities. Large numbers of technical and non-technical end-users are participating in F/OSS projects (Fitzerald, 2004; =-=Nichols and Twidale, 2003-=-). They get involved in activities that are essential for the F/OSS development process (Fitzerald, 2004), as well as the maintenance and diffusion of the software (Lakhani and Hippel, 2003; Michlmayr...

ingimp: Introducing Instrumentation to an End-User Open Source Application

by Michael Terry, Matthew Kay, Brad Van Vugt, On Slack, Terry Park
"... Open source projects are gradually incorporating usability methods into their development practices, but there are still many unmet needs. One particular need for nearly any open source project is data that describes its user base, including information indicating how the software is actually used i ..."
Abstract - Cited by 21 (6 self) - Add to MetaCart
Open source projects are gradually incorporating usability methods into their development practices, but there are still many unmet needs. One particular need for nearly any open source project is data that describes its user base, including information indicating how the software is actually used in practice. This paper presents the concept of open instrumentation, or the augmentation of an open source application to openly collect and publicly disseminate rich application usage data. We demonstrate the concept of open instrumentation in ingimp, a version of the open source GNU Image Manipulation Program that has been modified to collect end-user usage data. ingimp automatically collects five types of data: The commands used, high-level user interface events, overall features of the user’s documents, summaries of the user’s general computing environment, and users ’ own descriptions of their planned tasks. In the spirit of open source software, all collected data are made available for anyone to download and analyze. This paper’s primary contributions lie in presenting the overall design of ingimp, with a particular focus on how the design addresses two prominent issues in open instrumentation: privacy and motivating use.
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...the creation of open source software [19]. While a mature set of tools scaffold open source software development, comparatively fewer tools exist to scaffold usability efforts in open source projects =-=[1, 14]-=-. To date, open source usability efforts have been primarily supported through general-purpose communication tools (e.g., mailing lists and blogs), repurposed development tools (e.g., Bugzilla), and a...

Participatory Usability: supporting proactive users

by David M. Nichols, Dana McKay, Michael B. Twidale - Proceedings of 4th ACM SIGCHI NZ Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction (CHINZ'03 , 2003
"... After software has been released the opporttmities for users to influence development can often be limited. In this paper we review the research on post-deployment usability and make explicit its connections to open source software development. We describe issues involved in the design of end-user r ..."
Abstract - Cited by 14 (3 self) - Add to MetaCart
After software has been released the opporttmities for users to influence development can often be limited. In this paper we review the research on post-deployment usability and make explicit its connections to open source software development. We describe issues involved in the design of end-user reporting tools with reference to the Safari web browser and a digital library prototype.
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...are version which can be shared with other users. The restriction here is that users need to be very technically competent and so this option is only realistic for a small proportion of the user base =-=[17]. Alth-=-ough open source programs don’t actually prompt users to contribute source code, this message (‘fix it yourself’) is firmly embedded in the culture. The final response (no. 5) is to acknowledge ...

Conceptual Modelling as a New Entry in the Bazaar: The Open Model Approach

by Stefan Koch, Stefan Strecker, Ulrich Frank , 2006
"... The present contribution proposes to transfer the main principles of open source software development to a new context: conceptual modelling; an activity closely related to software development. The goal of ..."
Abstract - Cited by 12 (3 self) - Add to MetaCart
The present contribution proposes to transfer the main principles of open source software development to a new context: conceptual modelling; an activity closely related to software development. The goal of

Requirements Acquisition in Open Source Development: Firefox 2.0

by John Noll - Open Source Development Communities and Quality, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing , 2008
"... Abstract. Open Source Software Development appears to depart radically from conventional notions of software engineering. In particular, requirements for Open Source projects seem to be asserted rather than elicited. This paper examines features of the latest major release of the Firefox web browse ..."
Abstract - Cited by 10 (1 self) - Add to MetaCart
Abstract. Open Source Software Development appears to depart radically from conventional notions of software engineering. In particular, requirements for Open Source projects seem to be asserted rather than elicited. This paper examines features of the latest major release of the Firefox web browser in attempt to understand how prevalent this phenomenon is. Using archives of mailing lists and issue tracking databases, these features were traced from first mention to release, to determine the process by which requirements are proposed, adopted, and implemented in Firefox. The results confirm the importance of user participation as developers of open source products.
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...d bug reports; his view is that this rework could have been avoided with traditional up-front requirements analysis and design activities [54]. Henderson echoes this view, claiming that open source projects do not employ “requirements elicitation,” but that this could (and should) be easily added to open source processes [20]. Further, Nichols and Twidale observe that usability requirements are not captured well by open source projects, due to the mismatch between developers and users; their view is that the open source approach of “coding as early as possible” violates “good interface design [37].” These observations run counter to the prevailing open source view that de-emphasizes formal design and requirements gathering, yet also hint at the possible evolution of Requirements Acquisition in Open Source Development: Firefox 2.0 75 mature projects like Firefox. One the one hand, Trudelle’s view – that open source software projects need an overarching UI design and design function – seems to contradict the current success of Firefox, which is widely recognized as among the most innovative web browsers. In particular, Nichols and Twidale’s assertion that “commercial software establishes...

Users of Open Source Software - How Do They Get Help

by Vandana Singh, Michael B. Twidale, David M. Nichols - In Proc. of HICSS ’09 , 2009
"... A study was conducted across multiple open source software online technical help communities. This paper presents the types of discussions that occur, the types of questions asked and the type of responses that are given. The implications for socio-technical design are considered, exploring how help ..."
Abstract - Cited by 8 (0 self) - Add to MetaCart
A study was conducted across multiple open source software online technical help communities. This paper presents the types of discussions that occur, the types of questions asked and the type of responses that are given. The implications for socio-technical design are considered, exploring how help requests and discussions can be used to improve future help-giving, documentation and interface and functionality redesign. 1.
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...f the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2009 1978-0-7695-3450-3/09 $25.00 © 2009 IEEE certain aspects of OSS development that have receivedsless attention including: usability =-=[13, 14]-=-, adoption,sthe users of OSS [19] and user driven innovation [24].sAs noted by [21] The least explored areas of OSSssuccess included in the model are user impact and thesrole of user factors…users ma...

USABILITY IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: OPINIONS AND PRACTICE

by Morten Sieker Andreasen, Henrik Villemann Nielsen, Simon Ormholt Schrøder, Jan Stage
"... Abstract. Open Source Software (OSS) development has gained significant importance in the production of software products. Open Source Software developers have produced systems with a functionality that is competitive with similar proprietary software developed by commercial software organizations. ..."
Abstract - Cited by 6 (2 self) - Add to MetaCart
Abstract. Open Source Software (OSS) development has gained significant importance in the production of software products. Open Source Software developers have produced systems with a functionality that is competitive with similar proprietary software developed by commercial software organizations. Yet OSS is usually designed for and by power-users, and OSS products have been criticized for having little or no emphasis on usability. We have conducted an empirical study of the developers ’ opinions about usability and the way usability engineering is practiced in a variety of OSS projects. The study included a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews, where we interviewed OSS contributors with both technical and usability backgrounds. Overall we found that OSS developers are interested in usability, but in practice it is not top priority, and OSS projects rarely employs systematic usability evaluation. Most of the efforts are based on common sense. Most developers have a very limited understanding of usability, and there is a lack of resources and evaluation methods fitting into the OSS paradigm. 1.

Major HCI Challenges for Open Source Software Adoption and Development

by Nikos Viorres, Papadopoulos Xenofon, Modestos Stavrakis, Evangelos Vlachogiannis, Panayiotis Koutsabasis, John Darzentas
"... Abstract. The aim of the paper is to identify and discuss major challenges for OSS from an HCI perspective, so as to aid the adoption and development processes for end-users, developers and organizations. The paper focuses on four important HCI concerns: product usability, support for user and devel ..."
Abstract - Cited by 5 (0 self) - Add to MetaCart
Abstract. The aim of the paper is to identify and discuss major challenges for OSS from an HCI perspective, so as to aid the adoption and development processes for end-users, developers and organizations. The paper focuses on four important HCI concerns: product usability, support for user and development communities, accessibility and software usability and proposes areas for further research on the basis of related work and own experiences. 1.
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...d to issues that concern HCI’s multidisciplinary perspective. The assumption that HCI related problems could constitute inhibitors in both widespread OSS adoption and development is not without merit =-=[17]-=-. Indeed, the success of projects that target end-users, such as desktop-applications, may be correlated to corporate support and industry-practices regarding usability. Typical examples in support of...

in Engineering for Human-Computer Interaction

by Gilbert Cockton, David Siegel, Susan Dray, Bill Buxton, John Waterworth, Yvonne Rogers - Proceedings of the IFIP TC 2/WG 2.7 Working Conference on Engineering for Human-Computer Interaction, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North , 1989
"... get involved with open source software through the OpenUsability project ..."
Abstract - Cited by 3 (0 self) - Add to MetaCart
get involved with open source software through the OpenUsability project

Security by decentralized certification of automatic-updates for open source software controlled by volunteers

by Khalid Alhamed, Marius C. Silaghi, Ihsan Hussien, Yi Yang - in Workshop on Decentralized Coordination , 2013
"... Currently many users trust binaries downloaded from repositories such as sourceforge.net. As with any system connected to the Internet, such repositories can be subject to attacks tampering with the distributed binaries (inserting viruses, changing behavior). We propose a mechanism to reduce the lev ..."
Abstract - Cited by 2 (1 self) - Add to MetaCart
Currently many users trust binaries downloaded from repositories such as sourceforge.net. As with any system connected to the Internet, such repositories can be subject to attacks tampering with the distributed binaries (inserting viruses, changing behavior). We propose a mechanism to reduce the level of trust that users are required to have into repositories for open source software that is maintained by volunteers. In fact, with the proposed method, it is sufficient for the user to trust that his flexibly specified constellation of independent testers are safe to each given attack, even as all may be subject to different attacks. The interesting configuration when any majority t out of n testers of the given user’s choice have to be believed safe, is just a special case. A new integrated framework of open source development, testing, distribution and updating is defined, implemented and made available. Atester is a person that builds and tests an existing source code revision from a repository, and then distributes a signed binary release of it, tagged with a Quality of Test (QoT) and a Result of Test (RoT). An ontology for the QoT and RoT is defined and managed by the developers of the source code, and is fixed at each given revision. The final management of the mirrors distributing binaries tested by several testers is done by the mirror maintainers, who may or may not be from among the trusted testers. Some testers can be defined as reference (a new release is not automatically accepted without their signature and minimum RoT).
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... the claimed qualities of the provided software: Quality Definitions (QDs). The QDs specify the software requirements that are considered to be successfully accomplished in this release (Dromey 1996; =-=Nichols & Twidale 2003-=-). Example 1 The DDP2P software has as claimed qualities: • support of Windows 7. • support of Linux version 3.2.6. • resistance to buffer overflow attacks. • easy to learn and use (usability). A bina...

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