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The following factors influence the rate of adoption of tools in subject communities. The theory is that certain aspects of a tool determine whether it will be quickly and widely used. For now, we can simply look at this in terms of success or failure of a tool. |
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''any'' influence on success '''or failure''' of a tool, however small; my research is about finding out which ones make more of a difference and which ones can be safely ignored. | ''any'' influence on success ''or failure'' of a tool, however small; my research is about finding out which ones make more of a difference and which ones are less relevant. |
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contact you if I have questions and so that I can give appropriate credit. | contact you if I have questions and can give appropriate credit. |
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adopted by developers of the Debian project. Feel free to extend this list as well. |
adopted by developers of the Debian project. Feel free to extend/edit this list as well. |
Factors affecting diffusions in OSS
In this list, I attempt to bring together all factors which could have any influence on success or failure of a tool, however small; my research is about finding out which ones make more of a difference and which ones are less relevant.
If you feel like adding your thoughts to a factor, please feel free. It would help if you'd prefix your comments with your name so that I know how to contact you if I have questions and can give appropriate credit.
Also see ["madduck/adoptions"] for a list of tools which have or have not been adopted by developers of the Debian project. Feel free to extend/edit this list as well.
I use the following categories for factors (please extend as you see fit):
- [wiki:/usability Usability]: how usable is the tool? Is it well-documented? Can it be used in more than one way? Does it have multiple interfaces?
- [wiki:/maintenance Maintenance status]: how well is the tool maintained? Does it distinguish between stable and unstable releases? Are unstable releases usable?
- [wiki:/implementation Implementation]: how is a tool implemented? This is about code, language, style of development, modularity, accessibility to users interested in touching the code, etc.
- [wiki:/direction Direction]: does the project follow a defined direction? Is there a manifesto? What happens with new ideas which may deviate a bit from a given direction?
- [wiki:/community Community]: what are the traits of the developer and user communities around the tool? Is it vibrant? Open to newcomers? Helpful?
Focused? This is likely not a category of its own but rather to be split between usability and implementation: user vs. developer communities.