Authors: Matt Germonprez, Yu-Kai Lin, Yiqi Li, Sean Goggins
Open source software supply chains provide the technical products upon which much of our modern digital is built. Variations and instability in open source software supply chains can create significant challenges for the downstream projects and organizations that rely on their output. As such, knowing more about the supply chains to which we depend is a key concern for both academics and practitioners. To date, the operationalization of open source software supply chains has been primarily focused on the technical dependencies between projects. While technical dependencies are important, an open source supply chain is also constituted by the social connections and conventions present throughout. Using Howard Becker’s (1982) Art Worlds, we provide a robust operationalization as well as methods by which an open source software supply chain can be observed to include key social components. Our paper provides an important step in treating an open source supply chain as a robust construct under investigation — a step that can prove useful for both academics and practitioners.