In War and Peace: The Impact of World Politics on Software Ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper examines how global political conflicts, particularly the War in Ukraine, influence software ecosystems through incidents like protestware, highlighting consequences and proposing future research directions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of political impacts on open source software, including case studies and a research agenda with ten questions for future exploration.

Findings

Three case studies of political influence on software ecosystems

Impacts range from benign to malicious consequences

Proposes a research agenda with ten questions

Abstract

Reliance on third-party libraries is now commonplace in contemporary software engineering. Being open source in nature, these libraries should advocate for a world where the freedoms and opportunities of open source software can be enjoyed by all. Yet, there is a growing concern related to maintainers using their influence to make political stances (i.e., referred to as protestware). In this paper, we reflect on the impact of world politics on software ecosystems, especially in the context of the ongoing War in Ukraine. We show three cases where world politics has had an impact on a software ecosystem, and how these incidents may result in either benign or malignant consequences. We further point to specific opportunities for research, and conclude with a research agenda with ten research questions to guide future research directions.