Perspectives on Code Forking and Sustainability in Open Source Software

Nyman, Linus; Mikkonen, Tommi; Lindman, Juho; Fougère, Martin

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_21

Cited by 31 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The disagreements within blockchain communities often lead to a technical event known as a fork, which refers to the divergence of a blockchain into two or more potential paths [26]. For example, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created as a result of a successful fork from Bitcoin (BTC) due to the disagreement among the communities on increasing the block size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Role of Actor Heterogeneity in Blockchain Splits: An Actor-Network Perspective of Bitcoin Forks

Islam¹,

Mäntymäki²,

Turunen³

2019

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper investigates the focal actors and their heterogeneity in blockchain splits. Disagreements in blockchain communities often lead to splits in the blockchain and the community. For example, disagreements within the Bitcoin community on increasing the block size led to the blockchain split and creation of Bitcoin Cash. We build on actor-network theory to investigate blockchain split as a translation process, and employ case study methodology to examine Bitcoin splits. We identify several human actors, such as miners, developers, merchants, and investors, as well as non-human actors including ideologies, exchanges and computer programs involved in Bitcoin splits. Our results show that actor heterogeneity, that is, the complex constellation of diverse actors, plays a key role in blockchain splits. We further describe how the human and non-human actors' fluid moves into micro and macro positions in the network affect the development of the split. We also discuss the role of these actors and their engagement in forming micro and macro agencies in blockchain splits. Our study adds to the understanding of actor behavior and network dynamics in decentralized information systems such as blockchain and open source software.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Role of Actor Heterogeneity in Blockchain Splits: An Actor-Network Perspective of Bitcoin Forks

Islam¹,

Mäntymäki²,

Turunen³

2019

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…From the governance perspective, code forks manifest a challenge (von Krogh and von Hippel 2006) or a failure of cooperation (Viseur 2012), calling for stronger leadership (Fleming and Waguespack 2007). Another, and smaller, stream of research views forking as a means to create derivative works and portrays it positively because it improves the long-term sustainability of the codebase (Gamalielsson and Lundell 2014, Nyman et al 2012, Nyman and Lindman 2013. In our study, we combine the technical perspective of forking with the competitive and strategic intent and define platform forking as a process that creates two competing platforms from the same resource base, and which are controlled by different and competing hosts.…”

Section: Platform Forkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploiting and Defending Open Digital Platforms with Boundary Resources: Android’s Five Platform Forks

Karhu

Gustafsson

Lyytinen

2018

Information Systems Research

197

203

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Digital platforms can be opened in two ways to promote innovation and value generation. A platform owner can open access for third-party participants by establishing boundary resources, such as APIs and an app store, to allow complements to be developed and shared for the platform. Furthermore, to foster cooperation with the complementors, the platform owner can use an open-source license boundary resource to open and share the platform's core resources. However, openness that is too wide renders the platform and its shared resources vulnerable to strategic exploitation. To our knowledge, platform strategies that promote such negative outcomes have remained unexplored in past research. We identify and analyze a prominent form of strategic exploitation called platform forking in which a hostile firm, i.e., a forker, bypasses the host's controlling boundary resources and exploits the platform's shared resources, core and complements, to create a competing platform business. We investigate platform forking on Google's Android platform, a successful open digital platform, by analyzing the fate of five Android forks and related exploitative activities. We observe several strategies that illustrate alternative ways of bundling a platform fork from a set of host, forker, and other resources. We also scrutinize Google's responses, which modified Android's boundary resources to curb exploitation and retain control. In this paper, we make two contributions. First, we present a theorization of the competitive advantage of open digital platforms and specifically expose platform forking as an exploitative and competitive platform strategy. Second, we extend platform governance literature by showing how boundary resources, which are mainly viewed as cooperative governance mechanisms, are also used to combat platform forking and thus sustain a platform's competitive advantage.

show abstract

“…In this study, we found that inter-project forking is driven by organization strategy and policy. Previous studies found that the main reasons open source projects fork are technical variation, discontinuation of original project, community-driven, sustainability and legal issues [17,19]. Similar to open source projects, forks are used to divide work into di↵erent organizational teams and to deal with technical variations.…”

Section: Forking and Coordination In Multi Platform Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forking and coordination in multi-platform development

Duc

Mockus

Hackbarth

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context]With the proliferation of desktop and mobile platforms the development and maintenance of identical or similar applications on multiple platforms is urgently needed.[Goal] We study a software product deployed to more than 25 software/hardware combinations over 10 years to understand multi-platform development practices.[Method] We use semi structured interviews, project wikis, VCSs and issue tracking systems to understand and quantify these practices.[Results]We find the projects using MR cloning, MR review meeting, cross platform coordinator's role as three primary means of coordination. We find that forking code temporarily relieves the coordination needs and is driven by divergent schedule, market needs, and organizational policy. Based on our qualitative findings we propose quantitative measures of coordination, redundant work, and parallel development.[Conclusions] A model of coordination intensity suggests that it is related to the amount of paralel and redundant work. We hope that this work will provide a basis for quantitative understanding of issues faced in multi-platform software development.

show abstract

Perspectives on Code Forking and Sustainability in Open Source Software

Cited by 31 publications

References 13 publications

Understanding the Role of Actor Heterogeneity in Blockchain Splits: An Actor-Network Perspective of Bitcoin Forks

Understanding the Role of Actor Heterogeneity in Blockchain Splits: An Actor-Network Perspective of Bitcoin Forks

Exploiting and Defending Open Digital Platforms with Boundary Resources: Android’s Five Platform Forks

Forking and coordination in multi-platform development

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About