Abstract: Today’s crowdsourcing systems are predominantly used for processing independent tasks with simplistic coordination. As such, they offer limited support for handling complex, intellectually and organizationally challenging labour types, such as software development. In order to support crowdsourcing of the software development processes, the system needs to enact coordination mechanisms which integrate human creativity with machine support. While workflows can be used to handle highly-structured and predictable labour processes, they are less suitable for software development methodologies where unpredictability is an unavoidable part the process. This is especially true in phases of requirement elicitation and feature development, when both the client and development communities change with time. In this paper we present models and techniques for coordination of human workers in crowdsourced software development environments. The techniques augment the existing Social Compute Unit (SCU) concept-a general framework for management of ad-hoc human worker teams-with versatile coordination protocols expressed in the Lightweight Social Calculus (LSC). This approach allows us to combine coordination and quality constraints with dynamic assessments of software-user’s desires, while dynamically choosing appropriate software development coordination models.

Citation: Dave Murray-Rust, Ognjen Scekic, Petros Papapanagiotou, Hong-Linh Truong, Dave Robertson, Schahram Dustdar: A Collaboration Model for Community-Based Software Development with Social Machines. EAI Endorsed Trans. Collaborative Computing 1(5): e6 (2015).

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Abstract: Crowdsourcing is generally used for tasks with minimal coordination, providing limited support for dynamic reconfiguration. Modern systems, exemplified by social machines, are subject to continual flux in both the client and development communities and their needs. To support crowd sourcing of open-ended development, systems must dynamically integrate human creativity with machine support. While workflows can be used to handle structured, predictable processes, they are less suitable for social machine development and its attendant uncertainty. We present models and techniques for coordination of human workers in crowd sourced software development environments. We combine the Social Compute Unit—a model of ad-hoc human worker teams—with versatile coordination protocols expressed in the Lightweight Social Calculus. This allows us to combine coordination and quality constraints with dynamic assessments of end-user desires, dynamically discovering and applying development protocols.

Citation: Dave Murray-Rust, Ognjen Scekic, Hong-Linh Truong, Dave Robertson and Schahram Dustdar. A Collaboration Model for Community-Based Software Development with Social Machines. 10th IEEE International Conference on Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications and Worksharing, 22-25 Oct, Miami, FL, USA, 2014.

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