FLOSSmole: A Collaborative Repository for FLOSS Research Data and Analyses

Abstract

This article introduces and expands on previous work on a collaborative project, called FLOSSmole (formerly OSSmole), designed to gather, share, and store comparable data and analyses of free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS) development for academic research. The project draws on the ongoing collection and analysis efforts of many research groups, reducing duplication, and promoting compatibility both across sources of FLOSS data and across research groups and analyses. The article outlines current difficulties with the current typical quantitative FLOSS research process and uses these to develop requirements and presents the design of the system.