The continuity and reliability of services provided by open source communities

Companies and governments are increasingly dependent on open source infrastructures and related services. These services are delivered through a network of professional hobbyists and commercial software and service providers. The growing dependency of users on open source services increases the importance to assure the reliability and continuity of these services. However, open source communities have characteristics that lack or even conflict with the mechanisms that are described in theory to assure reliability and continuity. Examples of such characteristics are openness of source code, lack of formal procedures and low entry barriers. Therefore, the goal of this research is to answer the following four questions: 1.How are services provided in OS communities? 2.What are the strengths and weaknesses of OS communities to ensure the continuity and reliability of OS services? 3.What mechanisms can ensure the utilization of strengths and the minimization of weaknesses? 4.Is there a role for governments to ensure the continuity and reliability of OS services; and if so; what are the implications for future government actions? The first question will largely build on a research that has previously been conducted by part of the research team in light of the ITeR-program. However, due to hybridization of the OS software development model studied in the ITeR research, this part is in need of further exploration. The remaining three questions have not been addressed in the ITeR research. Furthermore, this research has a focus on continuity and reliability, which the ITeR research did not have.