Empirical Studies of Open Source Software Development

In its third year, the minitrack on Open Source Software (OSS) Development continues to provide a forum for discussion of an increasingly important mode of software development. OSS is a broad term used to embrace software that is developed and released under some sort of "open source" license. OSS development creates new challenges to software development, as team members typically work in a distributed environment and often as volunteers rather than employees. Researchers from a variety of disciplines have turned their attention to the phenomenon of OSS development as a successful and intriguing form of Internet supported work.