The Swarm Model in Open Source Software Developer Communities

Most of the current swarm model studies and applications try to mimic the collective behaviors of social animals, such as birds and ants. The studies seek to solve tasks similar to patterns and behaviors exhibited in those animal colonies. In this research, we demonstrated that the swarm model is also the major collaboration and organization model of Open Source Software (OSS) developer communities. OSS developers swarm together and spend their time attempting to achieve their relatively simple goals, while their contributions emerged as a collection of useful and sophisticated functionality that can compete with commercial software. The results discovered in this research will be helpful in demonstrating that the swarm model can not only be considered as a feasible approach to classical optimization problems, but can also be applied to constructing highly sophisticated systems. Key words: Swarm Model, OSS, Emergence, Stigmergy

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: SOCIALCOM
• Authors: Xiaohui Cui, Justin M. Beaver, Everett Stiles, Laura Pullum, Brian A. Klump, Jim N. Treadwell, Thomas E. Potok
• Keywords: Applied Computing, Classical Optimization Problems, Security Privacy, SOCIALCOM 2010, Swarm Model, Swarm Model Studies