Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem

Collaboration is the act of working with another individual or grouping to create something. It involves working jointly and openly with others. When collaborators bring their own diverse skills and experience – and new perspectives – the potential for innovation is great. However, collaboration is far from easy, and the diversity that brings benefits to the experience can also present barriers to collaboration. In an open source ecosystem, where collaboration is essential and the diversity of contributors is often high, these barriers can be substantial.


Introduction
Collaboration is the act of working with another individual or grouping to create something.It involves working jointly and openly with others.When collaborators bring their own diverse skills and experienceand new perspectives -the potential for innovation is great.However, collaboration is far from easy, and the diversity that brings benefits to the experience can also present barriers to collaboration.In an open source ecosystem, where collaboration is essential and the diversity of contributors is often high, these barriers can be substantial.
Open source collaboration is the act of working with different group of actors on a project to produce and create open source software (Nan and Kumar, 2013;tinyurl.com/k5a8yt3).For companies that wish to leverage open source software as part of their business models, effective collaboration is essential.However, the open environment introduces business-and people-related issues that can restrict or prevent open collaboration among the different groups of actors.Entrepreneurs and managers are faced with questions such as: How open should an actor be with sensitive or confidential business information, and with whom can it safely be shared?How can we collaborate openly with a competitor?How do we collaborate with actors from around the world, where cultural differences may affect our interactions?These business-and people-related issues inherent in an open source ecosystem create barriers to effective collaboration if entrepreneurs and managers fail to understand and overcome the barriers.
In this article, we examine the barriers to effective collaboration in an open source ecosystem, and we ask whether the different groups of actors in such an ecosystem face the same or different barriers.To success-Leveraging open source practices provides value to businesses when entrepreneurs and managers understand how to collaborate effectively in an open source ecosystem.However, the complex mix of different actors and varying barriers to effective collaboration in the ecosystem pose a substantial challenge.How can a business create and capture value if it depends on effective collaboration among these different groups?In this article, we review the published research on open source collaboration and reveal insights that will be beneficial to entrepreneurs and managers.We organize the published research into four streams based upon the following actor groups: i) governance actors, ii) competitors, iii) complementors, and iv) the core community.Then, through induction and synthesis, we identify barriers to collaboration, first by ecosystem and then by actor group.Finally, we offer six recommendations for identifying and overcoming barriers to collaboration in an open source ecosystem.
Yes, we are all different.Different customs, different foods, different mannerisms, different languages, but not so different that we cannot get along with one another.If we will disagree without being disagreeable.

Competitors
Three articles summarized in Table 1 relate to open source collaboration with competitors.Barriers to overcome when collaborating with competitors include a lack of trust, the need to identify shared objectives, and the need to share access to resources in contrast to a closed approach where a company looks to assimilate key resources into its business (Shamsuzzoha et al., 2013;tinyurl.com/nnvmcr2).Other barriers include concerns related to releasing confidential information

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem
Derek Smith, Asrar Alshaikh, Rawan Bojan, Anish Kak, and Mohammad Mehdi Gharaei Manesh

Open Source Barriers to Collaboration
Open source business shifts "the focus from the production value to the use value of the software artifact and emphasizes services and meta-services surrounding the artifact" (Feller et al., 2006;tinyurl.com/34eppr5)These examples show how the collaboration barriers listed in Table 2 were identified from the literature.Table 3 is a synthesis of the barriers from Table 2 to reveal which barriers are common across the groups and which barriers are unique to each group.
There are four barriers to collaboration that are common to all groups in an open source ecosystem: i) intellectual property, ii) moving from closed to open, iii) openness, and iv) a lack of transparency.The literature shows that trust is important to most groups in the ecosystem with the exception of the governance actors.A particular challenge for competitors and the core community is the diverse mix of people, and the potential for undefined roles and responsibilities.A particular challenge for complementors and the core community is inequality in the ecosystem.The governance actors and the core community tend to have a broad range of different barriers to collaboration.

Recommendations for Entrepreneurs and Managers
We offer six recommendations for entrepreneurs and managers seeking to overcome collaboration barriers for successful collaboration in an open source ecosystem.

Identify the common and unique barriers to collaboration in your open source ecosystem
The barriers to collaboration in an open source ecosystem include barriers common to all groups of actors in the ecosystem and barriers unique to specific groups of actors.Entrepreneurs and managers need to seek out, understand, and pay attention to these very different barriers for successful collaboration in an open source ecosystem.The specific nature of a given barrier will depend on the unique circumstances of your ecosystem, but Table 3 can help you systematically identify the types of common and unique barriers to collaboration.

Strike a balance between open and closed
Intellectual property that is not differentiating to a business should be released into the open.This requires early and ongoing identification of assets and information that may be open to the ecosystem and other assets and information that should be kept confidential.This includes patents, copyrights, designs and potential inventions.

Collaborate effectively with the core community
Understand the barriers with the core community that relate to equality, leadership, team structures, cultural differences, and new member integration.Be fair and equitable with the core community.Attempt to identify the leader, or assist developing a leader in the community.Ensure you have an appropriate team structures to assist collaboration with the core community and pay attention to cultural differences associated with a global community, and assist with integrating new members into the community.

Recognize the challenges of diversity
Be aware of the diversity in the competitor and core community groups; it can be beneficial, but it also introduces collaboration challenges.Diversity includes different levels of knowledge or education and different levels of skills.There may be actors from many different parts of the world, which creates the potential for cultural barriers to collaboration.

Conclusion
There are many barriers to collaboration in an open source ecosystem.Some of these barriers are common to all actors in the ecosystem, but others are unique to specific groups of actors in the ecosystem.Barriers common to all groups are: intellectual property, businessand people-related issues when moving from a closed system to an open system, understanding where and how to be open in business with other actors in the ecosystem including competitors, and a potential lack of transparency that can impact success.Effective collaboration requires an open approach to all groups in the ecosystem based upon informed business decisions and an understanding of the barriers in an open source ecosystem.Effective collaboration requires that entrepreneurs and managers identify and understand the collaboration barriers both common and unique to each of the four groups of actors in the ecosystem and then overcome these barriers.

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem
Derek Smith, Asrar Alshaikh, Rawan Bojan, Anish Kak, and Mohammad Mehdi Gharaei Manesh

Table 1 .
A summary of open source collaboration literature relevant to open source ecosystems

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem
Derek Smith, Asrar Alshaikh, Rawan Bojan, Anish Kak, and Mohammad Mehdi Gharaei ManeshTable 1 (continued).A summary of open source collaboration literature relevant to open source ecosystems www.timreview.caOvercoming Barriers

to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem
4. Core CommunityEight articles summarized in Table1relate to collaboration with the core community (i.e., users, adopters, contributors, leaders, developers and expert users).Barriers to overcome when collaborating with the core community include:• a lack of leadership; leaders are not appointed but evolve out of the community, and there may be cultural differences in leadership(Sarker et al., 2009;  tinyurl.com/l32zjuf).Collaboration with the core community requires identification of a leader or leaders of the project to ensure productivity and balance the needs of the actors in the core community• the size and format of the community, which affects collaboration as well as the degree of centralization or decentralization(Nan and Kumar, 2013; tinyurl.

to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem
. The open source ecosystem includes a number of different actors involved in the artifact and the services to provide a complete solution to customers.The ecosystem has little organization and order.The ecosystem may further include a platform where actors interact to create products or offer services.The platform offers value to the actors in the ecosystem but the platform also brings together many different technology, people and business relates issues(Kilamo et al., 2012; tinyurl.com/n5gnrgu).The actors are motivated by common interests or business models(Manikas and Hansen, 2013;  tinyurl.com/lsrljj5).Common interests include a motivation to join the ecosystem where there is overlap in business and the actors work collectively towards a common task, asset, or resource.A business model is also a motivation where the business model in part relies on a nondifferentiating common task, asset, or resource.
project creating and testing the software.Users are important for providing requirements.Adopters are key to using the open source project.Expert users provide insight into the project for both present and future needs.Governance actors resolve differences in the community to ensure the health of the ecosystem (Smith www.timreview.caOvercomingBarriers

Barriers to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem
Trademarks and know-how become more valuable and strategic to open source business.Move quickly and make informed business decisions in the open environment of the ecosystem and be open and transparent with competitors based upon your business decisions when collaborating with any group of actors in an open source ecosystem.

Table 2 .
Open source ecosystem actors, sub-groups, and collaboration barriers

Table 3 .
Barriers to collaboration in an open source ecosystem, by actor group

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration in an Open Source Ecosystem Derek
Smith, Asrar Alshaikh, Rawan Bojan, Anish Kak, and Mohammad Mehdi Gharaei Manesh

About the Authors Derek Smith is
the founder and principal of Magneto Innovention Management, an intellectual property consulting firm that assists entrepreneurs and small businesses with difficult intellectual property issues.He has over 20 years of experience working as an intellectual property management consultant and patent agent for IBM Canada, Bell Canada and, most recently, Husky Injection Molding Systems where he was Director, Global Intellectual Property.Prior to entering the field of intellectual property, he was an advisory engineer at IBM Canada where he was involved in a variety of leading-edge software development projects.Derek is currently a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.He also holds a BEng degree in Systems and Computer Engineering from Carleton University and is a registered patent agent in both Canada and the United States.Rawan Mohammad Bojan is a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.She has professional experience in the banking industry and holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Anish Kak is a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.He holds a BEng degree in Computer Science Engineering, from Birla Institute of Technology in India.Anish has two years of experience in the information technology services sector, which he gained while working for Hewlett-Packard in India.His research interests include the electronic sports ecosystem.Mohammad Mehdi Gharaei Manesh is a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.He holds an MBA degree from Carleton University's Sprott School of Business and also has a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic University in Iran.He has 5 years of working experience in a medical equipment company and his main area of interest relates to crowdsourcing and international business.
Asrar Abdulqader Alshaikh is a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.She holds a Bachelor of Accounting degree from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Her work experience includes customer service in a sale for distribution and communication company as well as working for the Alahli Bank (NCB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Her main area of research interest is collaborative consumption.