IOP Workshop Panels
Open Strategy & Innovation (Friday, Oct 27th, 11:00 AM-12:30 PM EDT)
Promises and perils of different strategies for managing innovation through openness.
Moderator: Bryn Geffert
Digital curation and creative brokering: Managing information overload in open organizing
Elizabeth Long Lingo (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
While open organizing offers great promise for harnessing diverse and previously untapped knowledge and perspectives in strategy and innovation processes, how leaders manage the fundamental problem of information overload within these efforts remains unexplored. In this presentation, I share a model of digital curation as creative brokering—how leaders strategically select, share, and interpret digital material across a diffuse network of actors to achieve concerted strategic action in the face of information overload. More specifically, I bring to life five digital curation practices—spotlighting, amplifying, refuting, recapping, and refocusing—and show why and how these practices are used in combination over time to respond to differing information overload challenges arising as open organizing unfolds. The paper offers several provocations for the study of open organizing: 1) it illuminates how leaders engage in digital curation to build shared understanding, nurture ongoing commitment, and foster concerted action in the face of information overload; 2) it springboards research on the behavioral practice and process of brokerage within open organizing networks; and 3) it highlights the critical role of managing emotions, in addition to information and knowledge exchange, in open organizing processes.
They love me, they love me not: What happens when evaluators disagree about the quality of contributions in open collaboration
Cassandra Chambers (Johns Hopkins University)
Open collaboration systems commonly use nonmonetary reward systems to motivate contributions. Reward systems are known to impact individuals’ search behavior, providing feedback on performance and shaping decisions about how much and where to direct future contribution efforts. Research linking reward systems and individual search, however, has yet to consider the potential of incongruent feedback–when multiple evaluators provide diverging feedback about an individual’s performance. This study explores how individuals adjust their search behavior in response to incongruent feedback from multiple evaluators in a peer reward system used to motivate contributions in open collaboration. Leveraging a unique data feature from one of the largest online communities, we show that individuals narrow their search to areas closer to their expertise after incongruent feedback. This pattern is associated with future efforts to improve clarity in the contribution process and ultimately with improved learning. Our findings contribute to research that examines the impact of nonmonetary reward systems on individual search and learning under ambiguous conditions, as well as provides practical implications for the use of reward systems in open collaboration.
Ambidextrous Open Innovation
John Edward Ettlie (Rochester Institute of Technology), Rajendran Murthy (Rochester Institute of Technology), & Peter Gianiodis (Duquesne University)
Although there has been great progress in establishing a rich research stream on open innovation since the original contributions, including documenting inside/outside openness (Gianiodis, Ettlie and Urbina, 2014), inbound/outbound flows (Scaliza, et al, 2022) and limits to performance outcomes of open innovation (Audretsch and BVeltiski, 2023; Ovuakporie, et al, 2021). However, there has little or no attention to applying ambitextrous organization theory to open innovation. In this paper, we compare three industries (automobiles, software and appliances) in their empirical tendencies to adopt crowdsourcing versus M&A alternatives in an attempt to determine whether these two strategies act as substitutes or complementary open innovation strategies. We conclude that there is support for the notion of ambitextrous open innovation because of the complementary calls and acquisitions of these firms.
Space and the Dynamic Between Openness and Closure: Open strategizing in the TV series Borgen
Jeannie Holstein (Nottingham University), Anniina Tantakari (University of Oulu)
In this paper we examine how the use of space shapes the dynamic between openness and closure in open strategizing. To do this, we draw from research that has defined organizational space as a process that is both a social product and produces social relations. We analysed the use of space in open strategizing in the Danish TV series and political drama Borgen. In our analysis we focused on three building blocks of space: boundaries, distance and movement, that allowed us to elaborate how the dynamic between openness and closure is shaped. Drawing on our analysis, we revealed three spatial features – physical visibility, strategizing artefacts, discursive designation – that play a role in the dynamic between openness and closure in strategizing. We constructed a conceptual framework that shows how these spatial features, and their different combinations, are associated with pivots between openness and closure. Thus, our findings advance prior open strategy research by providing potential explanations of why openness turns to closure, despite the attempts to keep the strategizing process open. We argue that taking space seriously provides a more nuanced understanding to some of the contingencies and possibilities related to the dynamics of openness and closure in strategizing.
Researching Openness (Friday, Oct 27th, 2:30-3:45 PM EDT)
How we study openness, and how openness affects our studies.
Moderator: Laurent Hébert-Dufresne
Community lead user research and usability in Science and Research OSS: What we learned
Eriol Fox & Georgia Bullen (Superbloom Design)
“The Usable Software Ecosystem Research (USER) project was initiated by Superbloom Design and funded by the Sloan Foundation. It explores how Scientific & Research open- source software teams understand, consider, and undertake usability and design opportunities in their projects.
Through a variety of design research methods such as literature reviews, semi- structured interviews, surveys, and ecosystem mapping, the research aims to obtain a better understanding of:
1. How norms in academic, science, and/or open- source working environments affect the choices teams make around their users and different kinds of design interventions.
2. How team dynamics and trust affects those choices.
3. What teams would need to be interested in or able to prioritize usability and design in their work.
In this short talk, we’ll give an overview of our findings but specifically zoom in on the ways in which Scientific and Research OSS (S&R OSS) contributors/teams leverage community spaces, interactions and documents to make user-informed choices about how to make their documentation and tools better. There will then be a critical review of how design research trained individuals might iterate and improve on these practices to make usability and design even better in S&R OSS. “
Thar Be Dragons: Ethical, Legal, and Policy Challenges when Measuring Open Source
Amanda Casari (Google)
Open source researchers are increasingly challenged while navigating the data which open source communities inherently create when working in the open. While mining software repositories for insights into open source practices isn’t new, moving beyond code analysis into ecosystems-level research does not have a clear path. This talk will outline the current ethical, legal, and policy challenges community leaders, as well as researchers in academia and industry face and the ambiguous areas decision makers should be aware of.
Potential Risks and drawbacks of Open Data and Code
Alice Patania (University of Vermont)
While open data can be a powerful tool for promoting transparency and collaboration, it is important to be aware of the potential risks and drawbacks associated with it, in particular when it comes to the costs and sustainability of open data projects. I will present examples practices from Neuroscience and common solutions.
Collaborative Open Practices: The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN)
Beck Pitt (The Open University)
The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN, https://go-gn.net) supports doctoral researchers around the world working on open education topics. GO-GN showcases and supports the work of its members, promotes equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and develops openness as a process of research.
The GO-GN network has developed a range of collaboratively produced openly licensed outputs. Earlier in 2023, the network released its compilation publication The GO-GN Open Research Handbook (https://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/open-research-handbook/). This publication brings together three years of collaborative outputs produced by the network, as well as other useful openly licensed materials. Similarly, GO-GN’s EDI guidelines brings together work to date on EDI in open education in Africa and Latin America (https://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/edi-guidelines/). Going forward, GO-GN will continue to build on this work, through developing and utilising our own sprint approach (see: https://go-gn.net/gogn/concept-note-the-go-gn-sprint/).
This presentation will share our experiences of fostering and supporting open practices within the network and our future plans.
Open Organizing Datasets (Saturday, Oct 28th, 9:00-9:45 AM EDT)
Where we can find data on open social interactions, closed social interactions, and everything in between.
Moderator: Jonathan St-Onge
Community Engagement & Team-Building through the Vermont Zoning Atlas
Yoshi Meke Bird (University of Vermont)
Open dataset development that is both multidisciplinary and community-engaged can be challenging, but it not only provides rich context for data collection and study; it also raises public awareness of the subject matter and its impact on our local Vermont communities. The Vermont Zoning Atlas is a volunteer-run effort to catalogue and geospatially visualize the distribution of zoning code regulations statewide according to a standardized methodology developed by the National Zoning Atlas. Our team includes lawyers, planners, students and professors from UVM and Middlebury College, retirees, and professionals, and we work with a Steering Committee comprised of public and private stakeholders interested in the future of Vermont’s zoning. This talk will address the strategies we’ve taken to ensure multidisciplinary participation and community engagement, as well as the struggles we have faced and how we’ve overcome them to develop this unique and exciting open dataset.
Openness and Transparency in Open-Source Software
Curtis Atkisson (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Open-source software (OSS) is created for people to use for free for a variety of purposes (given a particular license). OSS is increasingly important, with estimates of 70-90% of commercial code being open-source. OSS is not always created in an open and transparent way, however, which can complicate governance and long-term maintenance of projects. There is variation across the OSS ecosystem (projects and umbrella organizations) in openness and transparency in governance and development decisions, which has consequences for what researchers can learn from OSS data. One umbrella organization (the ASF) has strict requirements for openness and transparency, which has resulted in datasets that can be used to learn about fundamental questions in the social sciences. An open-source project studying OSS that produces useful outputs for practitioners could encourage additional openness and transparency throughout the OSS ecosystem.
Exploring Openness: the Organizing Data Resources Website
John Meluso (University of Vermont)
Access to social data is one of the great challenges when studying organizing. Researchers often find themselves carefully building relationships with companies and agencies only to find that the datasets they have may not answers the questions they set out to answer. What if, instead, researchers had access to many social datasets in one place so they could find datasets that actually answer their questions? Here, I’ll present the Organizing Data Resources Website (ODR Website), a catalogue of open social datasets created for the IOP Workshop. We hope this wiki will serve as a prototype of how openness could aid organizing research by openly providing researchers with the datasets they need to answer important questions.
Openness Expertise Through Practice (Saturday, Oct 28th, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM EDT)
What we can learn about openness from practitioners from all kinds of backgrounds.
Moderator: Juniper Lovato
The role of Empathy in Open Source Community Leadership in building stronger communities
Abigail Mesrenyame Dogbe (University of Cincinnati)
Understanding and practicing empathy is crucial, within Open Source communities to foster growth and enhance interactions among community members. In this lightning talk session, we will explore the significance of empathy in Open Source Community Leadership and decision making. Specifically, we will delve into how leaders can utilize empathy to impact their communities by addressing a real-life scenario resolving community challenges, building trust, and empowering the community to reach its potential. Let’s come together to discover the influence of empathy, in cultivating a prosperous Open Source Community.
From Users to Contributors: Strategies for Effective Community Management
Samson Goddy (Open Source Community Africa)
In the world of Open Source, active contributors are vital for the success & growth of a community. They bring new ideas, skills and increase productivity making work progress at a faster pace. Because they contribute to code, document, and fix bugs they promote the advancement of a project. The transformation of these users to active contributors is through effective community management. We will delve into strategies for engaging users, providing support, and empowering individuals to contribute meaningfully making actionable insights to building a thriving open source community where users become passionate contributors.
Designers in Open Source Software: Results from diary studies of designers contributing to OSS
Eriol Fox & Georgia Bullen (Superbloom Design)
Designers are still relatively rare in the FL/OSS space and those that have been around and active are burning out and struggling to peer support each other effectively. Understanding how designers, both new to open source software and established practice is a critical component in which we can make FLOSS usable across different users and sustainable through that usability and accessibility work. These diaries are some of the first explorations over a time period that detail designers habits and struggles contributing to 10+ different OSS projects.
In this session, I’ll be outlining what was learned from the data and offering my own experiences as a designer in OSS for 6+ years both contributing to OSS, mentoring other designers and supporting community efforts like opensourcedesign.net and sustaining open source design working group and podcast.
Collaborative outcomes of this session hope to be better support not just for designers contributing to OSS but the encouragement and support of opening those practices so we might learn and improve on them as an OSS community.
Putting Community First with the It Takes a Village Project
Megan Forbes (Johns Hopkins University)
The It Takes a Village project brought together open source software programs serving cultural and scientific heritage organizations to develop shared sustainability strategies and to provide communities with the information needed to assess and contribute to the sustainability of the programs they depend on. This talk will discuss how the core findings and outputs of It Takes a Village align with the core ideas of open organizing, which is the belief that the best way to make decisions and solve problems is to involve everyone who is affected by them.
Open organizing is a collaborative and participatory approach to decision-making that is well-suited to the challenges of sustaining open source software projects. By involving a diverse range of stakeholders, including developers, users, and funders, open organizing can help to ensure that projects are meeting the needs of their communities and are well-positioned for long-term success.
The It Takes a Village project found that open organizing principles can be applied to all aspects of open source software sustainability, including:
- Governance: Open organizing can help to create a more transparent and democratic governance structure, which can lead to better decision-making and increased participation from stakeholders.
- Technology: Open organizing can help to ensure that open source software projects are developed and maintained in a way that is open and inclusive, which can lead to higher quality software and a more sustainable community.
- Resources: Open organizing can help to attract and retain the resources needed to sustain open source software projects, such as funding, development expertise, and community support.
- Community Engagement: Open organizing can help to empower community members to take ownership of their projects. When community members feel like they have a voice in the decision-making process, they are more likely to be engaged and contribute to the sustainability of the project.
This talk will explore how open organizing principles can be used to sustain open source software projects in cultural and scientific heritage organizations, and will share specific examples from the It Takes a Village project.
Unlocking Innovation: Corporate Outsourcing through Open Source
Vinod Kumar Ahuja (Florida Gulf Coast University)
In the ever-evolving landscape of modern business, the intersection of corporate outsourcing and open source has become a catalyst for innovation and growth. This presentation, titled “”Unlocking Innovation: Corporate Outsourcing through Open Source,”” delves into the dynamic world of organizations that harness the power of open source collaboration to drive forward-thinking solutions.
We will explore how corporations employ open source as a means to outsource work and leverage external expertise and community-driven development to unlock innovation. This presentation will highlight a case study of Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) to explain how uniquely automotive corporations and their supply chain partners engage with open source to drive innovation.
Drawing from a real-world case study of AGL, this presentation will provide you with insights into the practices corporations adopt to integrate open source into corporate outsourcing models. Join me to discover how organizations are reshaping their approach to innovation and gaining a competitive edge by tapping into the collective power of open source communities.