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16 Part 1 • SyStemS analySiS FundamentalS

software communities view it as a way to help societies change. Widely known open source proj-
ects include Apache for developing a Web server, the browser called Mozilla Firefox, and Linux,
which is a Unix-like open source operating system.
However, it would be an oversimplification to think of open source software as a monolithic
movement, and it does little to reveal what type of users or user analysts are developing open
source software projects and on what basis. To help us understand the open source movement,
researchers have recently categorized open source communities into four community types—ad
hoc, standardized, organized, and commercial—along six different dimensions—general struc-
ture, environment, goals, methods, user community, and licensing. Some researchers argue that
open source software is at a crossroads and that the commercial and community open source
groups need to understand where they converge and where the potential for conflict exists.

Why Organizations Participate in Open Source Communities
Organizations participate in open source communities for a variety of reasons. One is the rapidity
with which new software can be developed and tested. It is faster to have a committed group of
expert developers develop, test, and debug code than it is to have one isolated team working on
software development. This cross-fertilization can also be a boon to creativity.
Another reason to participate is the benefit of having many good minds work with innova-
tive applications. Yet another reason for participating in an open source community might be the
potential for keeping down development costs.
Organizations might also seek to participate in an open source community due to a desire
to bolster their own self-image and contribute something worthwhile to the larger software
development community; they may want to contribute generously or altruistically to a higher
good beyond developing profitable proprietary software, and doing so may make them appear as
“good guys” to the external public.
While organizations may ask or even require that their software developers become involved
in one or more open source projects or communities, individual developers must interact with the
community in a meaningful and knowledgeable way in order to first prove themselves worthy
members of the group, and then strike up and maintain relationships that are mutually beneficial.
Organizations and the design teams within them interact with open communities. Companies
are taking advantage of an entire range of options that help them strike a harmonious equilibrium
so that their contributions to the open community and their differentiation from the open com-
munity become clear strategically. Reasons for contribution to and differentiation from include
cost, managing resources, and the time it takes to bring a new product to the market.

The Role of the Analyst in Open Source Software
As an analyst you may find yourself, at the request of your chief employer, participating in an
open source community. One widely known open source community is that surrounding the
Linux kernel. This is a large, mostly virtual community of developers who all have different
levels or types of participation and who all have different reasons for being involved. Other well-
known open source projects include Mozilla Firefox, Android, Apache projects, and many more.
Even NASA, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has a lively open source
community (see http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/opensource/).
One reason your company may ask you to participate in an open source community is curi-
osity about what the software benefits to the organization might be. This may be a result of a
sort of bandwagon effect, for when it becomes known that competitors are already participating,
your organization may want to get involved. With competitors actively participating in an open
community, an organization may calculate that it is something that should at least be investigated
seriously, not dismissed summarily. Another reason your company might ask you to participate
as a developer in an open community is to achieve what researchers have labeled “shared design.”
Shared design means that while you are participating in the open source community, you are at
the same time employed by an organization that wants to leverage your participation in the open
source community to incorporate open source software designs into proprietary products, pro-
cesses, knowledge, and IT artifacts that it is developing and that it hopes to eventually sell as a
product that is differentiated from what the open source community has produced. Through a
process of shared design the IT artifact is imbued with both community and organizational struc-
tures, knowledge, and practices.