Date of Award

1-1-2018

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Organizational Unit

Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, Computer Science

First Advisor

Matthew Rutherford, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Susanne Sherba

Third Advisor

Cathy Durso

Keywords

Open source software, Civic open source software development, Code for America

Abstract

Open data movement has nurtured the growth of civic open source software (OSS) in the recent decade. This emerging phenomenon has demonstrated a way that a community can collectively utilize technology to solve its problems.

This study is based on software projects in brigades of Code for America, which is a network of organizations that group volunteers to create digital solutions to community problems. In this study, we analyze the software engineering practices of current civic open source software development, participants' motivations and perceptions of the projects, and provide insights on the antecedents of success of the application development.

A conceptual model is developed to capture potential correlated factors and determinants of the success of civic OSS. We find that leadership, team member's identification as a core team member, and his/her perception of the public benefit level of the project are predictors for his/her satisfaction level. Additionally, we find that compared to team members who are very uninterested in the technologies used in the projects, those who have strong interests in the technologies experience an increase in the odds of stronger willingness to continue in the projects.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Le Chang

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

107 p.

Discipline

Computer science

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