FreeBSD - A pioneer of online development practices - 10 views

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  #1 Velia Torres on 24 Mar 12

   

  Watson, R. (2006). How the FreeBSD Project Works. Retrieved on March 20, 2012 from http://www.watson.org/~robert/freebsd/2006eurobsdcon/eurobsdcon2006-howfreebsdworks.pdf
  
  This paper presents the FreeBSD community from the perspective of the developer. The community is very large and active, developing an operating system, which is extensively used. Whilst to be part of the FreeBSD community one must prove themselves, the amount of contributors is sizable and the organisation produces quality code that is used by closed systems. As explained by the Jury Theorem the number of people directly impacts the crowd's aggregated knowledge, the FreeBDS community is wise, diverse and large, developers submit new versions of code that replace previous versions and achieve an aggregation of quality.
  
  FreeBSD has pioneered online development practices, the Project exists primarily through electronic communication and collaboration. Developer's services are mostly offered via FreeBSD.org, which include source code repositories, mailing lists are the life-blood of the Project, and the forum where almost all project discussions takes place. The FreeBSD.org website and Wiki are also central for communication.
  
  The most important resource for the Project is developer time, both volunteered and sponsored. Some work on FreeBSD in a few spare hours, others work fulltime. According to Watson the diversity of experience from developers across dozens of countries contributes to the success of FreeBSD, combining the practical "real world problem" focus of consumers building products with the expertise of researchers working on cutting edge computer science research. This diversity enables the community to continue to learn and is associated with increased group performance.
  
  Key to the collaboration is that FreeBSD is not a traditional organisation of downward delegation of authority as it is volunteer driven, the delegation of responsibility occurs up as much as down. In this way the organisation is de-centralised and fluid. Quality is paramount to the organisation's success; this paper shows the approach works, it will be interesting to explore non-developer online communities to see if this method can be applied and contribute to quality.

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Watson, R. (2006). How the FreeBSD Project Works. Retrieved on March 20, 2012 from <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.watson.org/~robert/freebsd/2006eurobsdcon/eurobsdcon2006-howfreebsdworks.pdf">http://www.watson.org/~robert/freebsd/2006eurobsdcon/eurobsdcon2006-howfreebsdworks.pdf</a> <br /> <br /> This paper presents the FreeBSD community from the perspective of the developer. The community is very large and active, developing an operating system, which is extensively used. Whilst to be part of the FreeBSD community one must prove themselves, the amount of contributors is sizable and the organisation produces quality code that is used by closed systems. As explained by the Jury Theorem the number of people directly impacts the crowd's aggregated knowledge, the FreeBDS community is wise, diverse and large, developers submit new versions of code that replace previous versions and achieve an aggregation of quality. <br /> <br /> FreeBSD has pioneered online development practices, the Project exists primarily through electronic communication and collaboration. Developer's services are mostly offered via FreeBSD.org, which include source code repositories, mailing lists are the life-blood of the Project, and the forum where almost all project discussions takes place. The FreeBSD.org website and Wiki are also central for communication. <br /> <br /> The most important resource for the Project is developer time, both volunteered and sponsored. Some work on FreeBSD in a few spare hours, others work fulltime. According to Watson the diversity of experience from developers across dozens of countries contributes to the success of FreeBSD, combining the practical "real world problem" focus of consumers building products with the expertise of researchers working on cutting edge computer science research. This diversity enables the community to continue to learn and is associated with increased group performance. <br /> <br /> Key to the collaboration is that FreeBSD is not a traditional organisation of downward delegation of authority as it is volunteer driven, the delegation of responsibility occurs up as much as down. In this way the organisation is de-centralised and fluid. Quality is paramount to the organisation's success; this paper shows the approach works, it will be interesting to explore non-developer online communities to see if this method can be applied and contribute to quality.</div>

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