The evolution of OSS governance: a dimensional comparative analysis

The competiveness of Open Source Software (OSS) communities depends on the quantity and combination of resources and competencies attracted to and retained at each stage of the innovation process. To this purpose, given the lack of proprietary control over source code, the way mechanisms of governance combine through a coherent and emergent process of governance is important to shaping the attractiveness and sustainability of these communities. Despite their importance, we still know little about how governance mechanisms are combined in OSS communities. This paper contributes to filling part of that gap. The study is based on an explorative factor analysis conducted on a database of 40 case studies of OSS projects hosted in Freshmeat. The results show OSS governance is configurational, and highlights four likely configurations of governance.