Abstract
"Software ecosystems'' are gaining importance in commercial software development; the iPhone iOS and Salesforce.com ecosystems are examples of this. In contrast to traditional forms of software reuse, such as common platforms or product lines, software ecosystems have a heterogeneous set of actors sharing and collaborating over one or more technological platforms and business model(s) that serve the actors. However, little research has investigated the properties of actual software ecosystems.
In this paper, we present an exploratory study of software ecosystems using the formalizations and metrics of the "network ecology'' approach to the analysis of natural ecosystems. In doing so, we mine the Maven central Java repository and analyze two OSGi ecosystems: Apache Felix and Eclipse Equinox. In particular, we define the concept of an ecosystem ``neighborhood'', apply network ecology metrics to these neighborhoods (including a keystone index that identifies the importance of elements in the ecosystem), and compare the ecosystems.
In this paper, we present an exploratory study of software ecosystems using the formalizations and metrics of the "network ecology'' approach to the analysis of natural ecosystems. In doing so, we mine the Maven central Java repository and analyze two OSGi ecosystems: Apache Felix and Eclipse Equinox. In particular, we define the concept of an ecosystem ``neighborhood'', apply network ecology metrics to these neighborhoods (including a keystone index that identifies the importance of elements in the ecosystem), and compare the ecosystems.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The 25th International Conference on Software Engineering & Knowledge Engineering SEKE 2013 : proceedings |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Publisher | Knowledge Systems Institute Graduate School |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Pages | 326-331 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-891706-33-2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |
| Event | The 25th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE) - Hyatt Harborside at Logan Int’l Airport, Boston, United States Duration: 27 Jun 2013 → 29 Jun 2013 Conference number: 25 |
Conference
| Conference | The 25th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE) |
|---|---|
| Number | 25 |
| Location | Hyatt Harborside at Logan Int’l Airport, |
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Boston |
| Period | 27/06/2013 → 29/06/2013 |
| Series | Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering |
|---|---|
| Volume | 2013 |
| ISSN | 2325-9000 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Science
- software ecosystems
- dependency structure
- dependency graphs
- network ecology