[Koha] Summary of PhD findings and a final thank you!

[Lori Bowen Ayre]

Brenda,

I want to echo Bob's sentiments, this is very useful information.  I have
only cursorily read it but I have ideas of the different ways to put your
research to good use for both the Koha and Evergreen communities.  Thanks so
much for sharing it.

Lori

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Lori Bowen Ayre //
Library Technology Consultant / The Galecia Group
Oversight Board & Communications Committee / Evergreen
(707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre at galecia.com

<Lori.Ayre at galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID,
filtering,
workflow optimization, and materials handling
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On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 5:25 AM, Bob Birchall <bob at calyx.net.au> wrote:

> On 05/08/11 13:07, Brenda Chawner wrote:
>
>> Several years ago I invited subscribers to this email discussion list to
>> complete a Web-based survey as part of  my PhD research. Since the data
>> gathered were anonymous, I don’t know who the individual respondents were,
>> which means I’m sending this summary of the findings to the list rather than
>> to individuals.
>>
>> I am very grateful to the people who took the time to complete the survey,
>> and provided such interesting perspectives on what factors influenced their
>> satisfaction with a free/libre and open source software project.
>>
>> The abstract for the thesis is below, outlining the research method and
>> summarising the main findings.
>>
>> Abstract
>>
>> The purpose of this research was to identify factors that affect
>> participants’ satisfaction with their experience of a free/libre open source
>> software (FLOSS) project. The research built on existing models of user
>> satisfaction from the information systems literature, and also incorporated
>> two characteristics of FLOSS projects first identified by Ye, Nakakoji,
>> Yamamoto, and Kishida (2005), product openness and process
>> openness. The central research question it answered was, What factors
>> influence participant satisfaction with a free/libre and open source
>> application software project?
>>
>> Richard Stallman’s reasons for setting up the GNU project and the Free
>> Software Foundation arose from his frustration at being forced to be a
>> passive user of software used for a Xerox printer. These suggest that being
>> able to be an active participant in a FLOSS project is one factor that
>> should be examined, and therefore the first sub-question this project
>> answers is, What types of contributions do participants make to
>> free/libre and open source software projects?
>>
>> Several studies have shown that the extent of participation in a FLOSS
>> project varies from individual to individual, and this variation leads to
>> the second sub-question, Do the factors that influence satisfaction vary for
>> different types of participation? If so, in what way?
>>
>> A preliminary conceptual model of factors affecting participant
>> satisfaction was developed, reflecting the key concepts identified in the
>> literature. The main theoretical goal of this research was to test the model
>> using empirical data.
>>
>> The research used a sequential, mixed methods approach. The first,
>> qualitative stage involved reviewing documents from selected projects and
>> interviewing a purposive sample of FLOSS project participants. The
>> second, quantitative stage involved an online survey of FLOSS project
>> participants, and the data gathered were used to test the conceptual model.
>>
>> The results of the first stage showed that participation in FLOSS projects
>> was a more complex construct than previously reported in the literature.
>> Seven distinct categories of activities were identified:
>>
>>   *   use;
>>   *   interaction with code;
>>   *   supporting the community;
>>   *   outreach;
>>   *   sponsorship;
>>   *   management; and
>>   *   governance.
>>
>> Four attributes that modified these categories were also identified:
>> organisational focus, role formality, remuneration, and time commitment.
>>
>> Data from 154 responses to the online survey were used to test the model
>> using stepwise multiple regression, which determined the effect of each of
>> the variables on overall participant satisfaction. Moderated regression
>> analysis was used to test the effects of three potential moderating
>> variables. The results showed that that perceived system complexity had the
>> largest effect, decreasing satisfaciton if respondents perceived that the
>> software was complex, while project openness and perceived developer
>> communication quality accounted for the most variance in satisfaction.
>>
>> The main theoretical contribution of this research lies in its extension
>> of satisfaction studies to FLOSS communities, showing that communication and
>> openness are more important than in conventional software
>> projects. Its practical contribution will help people involved in the
>> management and governance of FLOSS projects to identify ways of increasing
>> their participants’ satisfaction, which may in turn encourage them to
>> contribute more.
>>
>> The final version of the thesis is available in the VUW library’s research
>> archive at:
>>
>> http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.**nz/bitstream/handle/10063/**
>> 1710/thesis.pdf?sequence=4<http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10063/1710/thesis.pdf?sequence=4>
>>
>> Thank you again to everyone who completed the survey. Please let me know
>> if you have any questions about this research.
>> --
>> Dr. Brenda Chawner
>> Senior Lecturer
>> School of Information Management
>> Victoria University of Wellington
>> P O Box 600, Wellington  NEW ZEALAND
>> (04) 463 5780 | fax (04) 463 5446 | Room RH423 | brenda.chawner at vuw.ac.nz
>>
> Hi Brenda,
> Sincere thanks  for sharing this precis of your findings with us.  I think
> you have made an extremely valuable contribution.  The categorisation of
> activities is useful.  Moreover, your pointer to communication and openness
> as drivers of user satisfaction strikes to me as an important finding, and
> could (at least partially) explain differences in the robustness of the
> communities surrounding different projects.  On that score, Koha seems to me
> to be exemplary.
> Congratulations on your achievement and thanks for sharing your insights.
> Kind regards,
> Bob Birchall
> CALYX
>
>
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