Abstract
Digital information networks have become a globally accessible space for meaningful social interaction and collaboration. The Internet has enabled people to create and innovate together online, regardless of their physical location, geographical boundaries or cultural backgrounds. These conditions are used to exceptionally good creative advantage by online open-source software development (OSSD) projects and communities. OSSD communities share a collaborative ethos and approach to software development, but even in such information-rich and openly collaborative surroundings implementing design solutions is very challenging. Various design approaches have been attempted with inconsistent success. This field research investigates the social circumstances in OSSD communities which influence the implementation of design solutions, aiming to explain the observed ineptitude of designers to contribute design solutions to OSSD projects. Therefore, aiming towards a methodology of design fit for the open source paradigm, this paper proposes a set of heuristic techniques to improve a designer's ability to collaborate, contribute and design with and within an open-source development community with a desired positive outcome.
