Abstract
In this paper, we present preliminary evidence suggesting that the voting mechanism implemented by the open-source Firefox community is a means to provide a supplementary voice to mainstream users. This evidence is drawn from a sample of bug-reports and from information on voters both found within the bug-tracking system (Bugzilla) for Firefox. Although voting is known to be a relatively common feature within the governance structure of many open-source communities, our paper suggests that it also plays a role as a bridge between the mainstream users in the periphery of the community and developers at the core: voters who do not participate in other activities within the community, the more peripheral, tend to vote for the more user-oriented Firefox module; moreover, bugs declared and first patched by members of the periphery and bug rather solved in “I” mode tend to receive more votes; meanwhile, more votes are associated with an increased involvement of core members of the community in the provision of patches, quite possibly as a consequence of the increased efforts and attention that the highly voted bugs attract from the core.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Cox, A.: Cathedrals, bazaars and the town council (1998), http://www.linux.org.uk/Papers_CathPaper.cs
Dalle, J.-M., den Besten, M.: Different bug fixing regimes? A preliminary case for superbugs. In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Open Source Systems, Limerick, Ireland (June 2007)
Dalle, J.-M., den Besten, M., Masmoudi, H.: Channelling Firefox developers: Mom and dad aren’t happy yet. In: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Open Source Systems, Milan (September 2008)
Delbecq, A.L., Van de Ven, A.H.: A group process model for problem identification and program planning. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 7(4), 466–492 (1971)
Hirschman, A.O.: Exit, voice, and loyalty. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1970)
Livingston, J.: Blake Ross; creator, Firefox. In: Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days, Apress (2007)
MacCormack, A., Rusnak, J., Baldwin, C.Y.: Exploring the structure of complex software designs: An empirical study of open source and proprietary code. Management Science 52(7), 1015–1030 (2006)
Masmoudi, H., den Besten, M., de Loupy, C., Dalle, J.-M.: Peeling the onion: The words and actions that distinguish core from periphery in Firefox bug reports, and how they interact together. In: Crowston, K., Boldyreff, C. (eds.) Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Open Source Systems (2009)
Garcia, J.M., Edward Steinmueller, W.: Applying the open source development model to knowledge work. INK Open Source Research Working Paper 2, SPRU - Science and Technolgy Policy Research, University of Sussex, UK (January 2003)
Mockus, A., Fielding, R.T., Herbsleb, J.D.: Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and mozilla. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. 11(3), 309–346 (2002)
O’Mahony, S.: The governance of open source initiatives: what does it mean to be community managed? Journal of Management and Governance 11(2), 139–150 (2007)
O’Mahony, S., Ferraro, F.: The emergence of governance in an open source community. Academy of Management Journal 50(5), 1079–1106 (2007)
Ripoche, G.: Sur les traces de Bugzilla. PhD thesis, Université Paris XI (2006)
van Liere, D.W.: How shallow is a bug? Technical report, Rotmon School of Management, University of Toronto, November 16 (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 IFIP
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dalle, JM., den Besten, M. (2010). Voting for Bugs in Firefox: A Voice for Mom and Dad?. In: Ågerfalk, P., Boldyreff, C., González-Barahona, J.M., Madey, G.R., Noll, J. (eds) Open Source Software: New Horizons. OSS 2010. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 319. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13244-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13244-5_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13243-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13244-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)