Analysis of virtual communities supporting OSS projects using social network analysis

This paper analyses the behaviour of virtual communities for Open Source Software (OSS) projects. The development of OSS projects relies on virtual communities, which are built on relationships among members, being their final objective sharing knowledge and improving the underlying project. This study addresses the interactive collaboration in these kinds of communities applying social network analysis (SNA). In particular, SNA techniques will be used to identify those members playing a middle-man role among other community members. Results will illustrate the importance of this role to achieve successful virtual communities. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.