Exploring health within OSS ecosystems Björn Lundell 1 , Bo Forssten 2 , Jonas Gamalielsson 1 , Henrik Gustavsson 1 , Robert Karlsson 4 , Christian Lennerholt 1 , Brian Lings 1 , Anders Mattsson 3 , Erik Olsson 1 1: University of Skövde, Sweden; 2: TeliaSonera, 3: Combitech, 4: SSAB { bjorn.lundell, jonas.gamalielsson, henrik.gustavsson, christian.lennerholt, brian.lings, erik.olsson }@his.se, bo.forssten@teliasonera.com, anders.mattsson@combitech.se, robert.karlsson@ssabox.com Abstract. Open Source Software (OSS) is software which can be freely used, modified and redistributed, generally produced in a collaborative fashion by global communities of firms and individuals. In this paper we consider OSS ecosystems using an analytical device which we refer to as the OSS Stakeholder triangle. We believe that the OSS Stakeholder triangle constitutes a useful means for analysing many aspects of Open Source ecosystems, including interaction between stakeholder roles and the overall health of an ecosystem. 1 Introduction Many of the major examples of business innovation in the software sector in recent years have been in the area of OSS (Ghosh, 2005, 2006). Companies and public sector organisations are increasingly using OSS in their daily business (e.g. Lundell et al., 2006), and a significant number of companies are specialised in supplying Open Source products and services (e.g. Open Source Sweden, 2009). Further, an increasing number of companies are actually contributing to Open Source projects 1 , paying employees to participate or even initiating projects by releasing their software as OSS 2 . In such cases, building and maintaining OSS communities becomes an important issue (Senyard and Michlmayr, 2004). A number of studies have analysed the Open Source phenomenon and presented a basis for an increased understanding of aspects of it, including: motivations for developers’ involvement in Open Source projects, policy aspects, and economic implications of Open Source. Researchers have more recently turned their attention to the dynamics of OSS ecosystems. For example, Feller et al. (2008) investigated how Zea Partners formed a network (‘ecosystem’) of small open source companies with complementary capabilities, to deliver a ‘whole product’. Crowston and Howison (2006) analyse how Open Source projects are typically organised, noting that whilst “code is easy to access, understanding the communities that build and support the software can be difficult.” (p. 89) 1 See, for example, http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ 2 For example, SSAB’s process control system Proview, http://www.proview.se/