Collaboration, Leadership, Control, and Conflict Negotiation in the Netbeans

Large open source software development communities are quickly learning that, to be successful, they must integrate efforts not only among the organizations investing developers within the community and unaffiliated volunteer contributors, but also negotiate relationships with external groups hoping to sway the social and technical direction of the community and its products. Leadership and control sharing across organizations and individuals in and between communities are common sources of conflict. Such conflict often leads to breakdowns in collaboration. This paper seeks to explore the negotiation of these conflicts, collaborative efforts, and leadership and control structures in the Netbeans.org community.