Release as a Contract: A Concept of Meta-Maintenance for the Entire FLOSS Ecosystem

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new paradigm called software meta-maintenance for supporting the entire FLOSS ecosystem by monitoring it holistically using blockchain-based systems, shifting from project-level to ecosystem-level maintenance.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of software meta-maintenance and discusses the design of global systems for source code, issue management, and human capital indexing using blockchain technology.

Findings

Conceptual framework for ecosystem-level maintenance

Discussion of blockchain-based global management systems

Identification of challenges in implementing meta-maintenance

Abstract

We advocate for a paradigm shift in supporting free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) ecosystem maintenance, from focusing on individual projects to monitoring a whole organic system of the entire FLOSS ecosystem, which we call software meta-maintenance. We discuss challenges of building a global source code management system, a global issue management system, and FLOSS human capital index, based on the blockchain technologies.