| With the development of computer technology and internet enterprises, open source software has been from the programmers’ world, gradually penetrated into our daily life. An important question about the research of the open source software is how the volunteers dispersing worldwide can collaborate with each other to solve complex software development problems. At present, the researches on open source software are mostly from the conceptual level. However, the study of communication data of the developers is still insufficient. It is worthwhile to study the deep mechanisms and working modes of the open source software development from aspect of the developers’ communication networks.Therefore, this thesis focuses on the email data of the Linux Kernel developers during the period from 1996 to 2013.With data analysis method, the thesis studies the structure of the collaboration network of the Linux kernel developers and the evolution characteristics of the time-varying network. On the basis of collaboration structure, we analyze the behavior of the developers. The major contributions of this thesis can be summarized as the following three points.Firstly, through analysis of the collaborative communication network of the developers in the Linux kernel open source software, both monthly and annually network show obvious "core-periphery" structure. The study finds out that collaborative network of open source software shows the rich-club phenomenon. In this thesis, the central part of the network is further investigated, from the point of view of the topological structure of complex network. With the exchange of information and person of the environment, the structural features of the central network evolution is whether monthly or annually temporal network are based on three-layered structure in the horizon, gradually form significant community structure in the longitudinal.Secondly, from the view of behavior dynamics, we find that the time span and active degree of the Linux kernel developers show index and piecewise power-law distribution. The core developers in the central network not only maintain the collaboration within the community, but also coordinate in the inter-communal discussions. Combined with the subject data of developers, it is found that the development of community is around with specific knowledge module. New developers first select the knowledge related or self-interesting community. Then, they prefer to collaborate with the maintainer of the knowledge module, reflecting different allocation quality of the network. If some developers leave the central network randomly, they will be replaced by developers from the periphery or outside environment. Thus, it has no influence on the organization structure of Linux, also reflects the adaptability of the system.Thirdly, this thesis presents the evolution mechanism of the Linux kernel developers’ collaboration network structure. Due to the roles of developers, the network performs hierarchical structure. Because the vast majority of developers only focus on several module development of the kernel, the network gradually forms community structure with knowledge modules. Open source collaborative production reflects five major characteristics of collective intelligence. They are the mass participation, individual differences, cooperative, multi roles and system property. This paper also explores the self-governance rules of open source software development.This thesis has a deep research on the collaborative production mode of open source software developers. These conclusions have reference value for the construction of open source software development platform, and will benefit to improving the success rate of open source projects. In addition to the software industry, the idea of open source has a certain enlightening significance in traditional industries, such as the open car, open education and so on. |
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