Estudio y análisis de las listas de distribución en proyectos de software de código abierto com medio para compartir conocimiento

This research explores the role of mailing lists in open source software projects as a tool for knowledge sharing and problem resolution. One of the benefits that firms can derive from using Open Source Software (OSS) is informal development collaboration. The primary tool for collaboration and coordination are group mailing lists, followed by asynchronous discussion forums, bug reports, and chat. One of the main arguments when deciding about an embedded Linux distribution is the support provided to developers. However, it is usually difficult to decide a priori if the provided support will be good enough for the future development of the project. Particularly, the behaviour and activity of mailing list are analyzed to extract a set of parameters that could inform about the quality and the evolution of the list. This information could be useful to decide the best embedded distribution to be implemented.