Software ecosystem
Software Ecosystem is a book written by David G. Messerschmitt and Clemens Szyperski that explains the essence and effects of a "Software Ecosystem", defined as a set of businesses functioning as a unit and interacting with a shared market for software and services, together with relationships among them. These relationships are frequently underpinned by a common technological platform and operate through the exchange of information, resources, and artifacts.[1][2][3][4]
The use of the term in software analysis
In the context of software analysis research, the term software ecosystem is defined by Lungu [5] as “a collection of software systems, which are developed and co-evolve in the same environment”. An environment can be a company, an open-source community, etc. The ecosystem metaphor is used in order to highlight the inter-dependence between the different systems that form such an ecosystem, and to denote analysis that takes into account multiple software systems. Types of analysis that are relevant at the ecosystem level are: visualization, code duplication, code search, inter-project dependency analysis, etc.
Objection to the use of the term Ecosystem to describe software
Richard Stallman argues that software has nothing in common with an Ecosystem which is a natural system of combined physical and biological components of a natural environment. "It is a mistake to describe the free software community, or any human community, as an "ecosystem", because that word implies the absence of (1) intention and (2) ethics." Software is always the result of both intentions and ethics.[6]
References
- ^ Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. 2003. ISBN 0262134322.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|authors=ignored (help) - ^ Profit from Software Ecosystems: Business Models, Ecosystems and Partnerships in the Software Industry. Norderstedt, Germany: BOD. 2010. ISBN 3842300514.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|authors=ignored (help) - ^ "Software acquisition: A business strategy analysis". Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering. IEEE. 2001. pp. 76–83. doi:10.1109/ISRE.2001.948546.
{{cite conference}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|authors=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|booktitle=ignored (|book-title=suggested) (help) - ^ "Providing transparency in the business of software: A modeling technique for software supply networks". Proceedings of the 8th IFIP Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises. IFIP. 2007. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-73798-0. ISBN 9780387737973.
{{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter|authors=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|booktitle=ignored (|book-title=suggested) (help) - ^ Lungu, Mircea (2009). Reverse Engineering Software Ecosystems (Ph.D.). University of Lugano.
- ^ Free Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Ecosystem
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