A Tailored Participatory Action Research for FOSS Communities

Abstract

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an established method to implement change inorganizations. However, it cannot be applied in the open source (FOSS) communities, without adaptationto their particularities, especially to the specific control mechanisms developed in FOSS. FOSS communitiesare self-managed, and rely on consensus to reach decisions. This study proposes a PAR frameworkspecifically tailored to FOSS communities. We successfully applied the framework to implement a set ofquality assurance interventions in the Robot Operating System community. The framework we proposedis composed of three components, interventions design, democratization, and execution. We believe thatthis process will work for other FOSS communities too. We have learned that changing a particular aspectof a FOSS community is arduous. To achieve success the change must rally the community around it forsupport and attract motivated volunteers to implement the interventions.Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an established method to implement change in organizations. However, it cannot be applied in the open source (FOSS) communities, without adaptation to their particularities, especially to the specific control mechanisms developed in FOSS. FOSS communities are self-managed, and rely on consensus to reach decisions. This study proposes a PAR framework specifically tailored to FOSS communities. We successfully applied the framework to implement a set of quality assurance interventions in the Robot Operating System community. The framework we proposed is composed of three components, interventions design, democratization, and execution. We believe that this process will work for other FOSS communities too. We have learned that changing a particular aspect of a FOSS community is arduous. To achieve success the change must rally the community around it for support and attract motivated volunteers to implement the interventions