Open Digital Infrastructure

Open Digital Infrastructure represents the set of open-source code, standards and knowledge assets that digital building blocks like software libraries, compilers, communication or network protocols are composed of.

They are created by individuals, volunteer communities, in research institutions and SMEs or other corporate environments. Together, they form a foundation of free and public code that is designed to solve common challenges – firstly, in programming, but when applied, also to provide a multitude of core functions for society.

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Code Classification

Sociotechnical Repercussions of FOSS Engineering Processes and Code Classification

Research Question
How do technical decision-making processes and classification of code components affect the sustainability of a major open source infrastructure project via their influence on codebase complexity, maintainer engagement, and project user communities?
Why is this important to answer?

Understanding how specific organizational procedures and decision-making in FOSS projects impact source code, software architecture and contributor communities is critical to understanding project maintenance and longevity. To support the ongoing maintenance of these critical pieces of digital infrastructure, insights are needed into the second-order impacts of such processes and decisions. This research project aims to develop insight into FOSS development by studying MediaWiki, the PhP-language software platform that thousands of wikis are developed on, including Wikipedia. By identifying the impact that technical categorization processes and decisions have on community contributors and source code, our study will contribute useful knowledge to the ongoing efforts to support sustainable communities and maintainable software.

Start Date
November, 2024
Team
Darren Gergle
Northwestern University
Aaaron Shaw
Northwestern University
Matt Gaughan
Northwestern University