AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE LEVEL OF VITALITY AND POPULARITY OF OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
Katherine J. Stewart, Robin Smith, Tony Ammeter · 2002
In this research, we ask the question: What differentiates successful from unsuccessful open source software projects? Using a sample of 240 open source projects, we examine how organizational sponsorship, target audience (developer versus end user), license choice, and development status interact over time to influence the extent to which open source software projects attract user attention and developer activity. 1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS There is growing interest in open source software (OSS) development in industry, government, and academia. OSS development is different from traditional software development in that it depends on volunteer labor pools coordinating their effort without a common organizational superstructure, and the end product is generally provided freely (Feller and Fitzgerald 2002). There are many ways to define success in the context of OSS development. Market penetration is often cited when discussing well-known open source software, such as Linux and Apache. A similar indicator for less well-known projects might be the number of subscribers to the project—i.e., the number of people who monitor announcements and new releases is one indicator of public