# Open Source Software Taxonomy A Collaborative Approach > [! note]- > The content of this page is generated by audio/video transcription and text transformation from the content and links of this source. Source: [https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5264-do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy-/](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5264-do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy-/) <video src="https://video.fosdem.org/2025/aw1126/fosdem-2025-5264-do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy-.av1.webm" controls></video> ## Summary & Highlights: Sophia Vargas discusses the challenges and opportunities in creating taxonomies for open source software. She emphasizes the need for shared taxonomies to avoid building them in isolation, which can lead to biases and inefficiencies. **Introduction to Taxonomies** Taxonomies are essential for organizing and analyzing open source software. They help researchers categorize and understand project characteristics, influencing behavior and analysis. However, creating taxonomies in isolation can lead to biases and inefficiencies. **Existing Taxonomies and Challenges** Sophia explores various existing taxonomies, including functional, organizational, and context-driven ones. She highlights the limitations of current classifications, such as the outdated Standard Industrial Classification and the need for more granular and applicable categories for open source software. **Collaborative Solutions and Crowdsourcing** The talk proposes a collaborative approach to taxonomy creation, inspired by the Open Demographics Project. By sharing taxonomies on platforms like GitHub, researchers can build upon existing work, enhancing visibility and applicability across different contexts. **Social and Technical Considerations** Sophia emphasizes the socio-technical nature of open source ecosystems, where social elements often play a more significant role than technical categories. Understanding community dynamics and engagement patterns is crucial for effective taxonomy development. **Conclusion and Future Directions** The session concludes with a call to action for researchers to collaborate on taxonomy development, leveraging community insights and shared resources to improve the analysis and sustainability of open source projects. ## Importance for an eco-social transformation This session is important for eco-social transformation as it addresses the need for collaborative and inclusive approaches in open source research. By developing shared taxonomies, researchers can better understand and support sustainable and community-driven open source projects. This approach encourages transparency, reduces duplication of effort, and fosters innovation. Eco-social designers can apply these methods to create more effective tools and platforms that consider both social and technical aspects. Challenges include overcoming biases, ensuring inclusivity, and addressing the evolving nature of technology, which requires continuous adaptation and collaboration. ## Slides: | | | | --- | --- | | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_001.jpg\|300]] | The session, led by Sophia Vargas, questions the need for new open source software taxonomies. It highlights the importance of shared taxonomies to avoid isolated development, which can lead to inefficiencies. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_002.jpg\|300]] | Sophia Vargas introduces herself as a market researcher, consultant, analyst, and program manager, setting the stage for her expertise in analyzing open source software taxonomies. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_003.jpg\|300]] | The slide poses a hypothesis on how the characteristics of open source software projects influence various aspects, prompting an exploration of existing taxonomies to better understand these influences. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_004.jpg\|300]] | The slide references the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, established in 1937, as a starting point for existing taxonomies, noting its division between hardware and software. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_005.jpg\|300]] | This slide continues the discussion on existing taxonomies, focusing on the software component of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system and its limitations in categorizing open source software. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_006.jpg\|300]] | The slide introduces the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), established in 1997, as an alternative taxonomy, highlighting its limitations in addressing the nuances of software classification. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_007.jpg\|300]] | The slide discusses the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC), released in 2023, as another existing taxonomy, questioning its applicability to open source software. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_008.jpg\|300]] | The slide examines how the internet categorizes software, noting the distinction between hardware and software, and the ambiguity in categorizing protocols, frameworks, and standards. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_009.jpg\|300]] | The slide references ontology engineering as a potential framework for developing taxonomies, highlighting its focus on organizational and functional aspects. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_010.jpg\|300]] | The slide introduces the concept of a 'taxonomy for taxonomies,' distinguishing between functional, organizational, and context-driven approaches to categorization. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_011.jpg\|300]] | The slide presents a functional taxonomy attempt from an internal project, listing categories like framework, language, library, and operating system, while noting the absence of infrastructure. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_012.jpg\|300]] | The slide outlines an organizational taxonomy, categorizing elements like system environment, network communication, and data processing, based on an internal project categorization attempt. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_013.jpg\|300]] | The slide describes a mixed taxonomy used in a survey of open source projects, categorizing areas like science, development tools, and media, reflecting a data-driven context. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_014.jpg\|300]] | The slide highlights the importance of understanding the context of users and contributors in open source projects, emphasizing different engagement styles and levels of contribution. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_015.jpg\|300]] | The slide references a Stack Overflow survey, categorizing developer engagement with various tools and technologies, illustrating a functional context within a developer ecosystem. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_016.jpg\|300]] | The slide discusses methods for identifying non-code contributions in open source projects, citing a study that analyzes attribution through various data sources and methodologies. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_017.jpg\|300]] | The slide continues the discussion on non-code contributions, referencing a study that explores different methods of attribution analysis in open source projects. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_018.jpg\|300]] | The slide examines community context in open source projects, focusing on aspects like project lifecycle, community size, and technology usage to understand engagement patterns. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_019.jpg\|300]] | The slide categorizes project status in open source communities, ranging from concept to active, inactive, and abandoned, reflecting different stages of development and engagement. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_020.jpg\|300]] | The slide explores the socio-technical model of open source, emphasizing the interaction networks between people, resources, and processes in software development. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_021.jpg\|300]] | The slide presents a social model of open source, classifying projects by purpose, such as collaboration, demonstration, and experimentation, to understand their social dynamics. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_022.jpg\|300]] | The slide addresses inherent challenges in taxonomy development, such as subjective bias, constant evolution, and the need for discrete yet overlapping categories. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_023.jpg\|300]] | The slide proposes orthogonal taxonomies, which include function, organization, and context, to provide a comprehensive framework for categorizing open source software. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_024.jpg\|300]] | The slide questions if there is a better way to build taxonomies, suggesting the potential for improved methods and frameworks in organizing open source software. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_025.jpg\|300]] | The slide explores the concept of crowdsourcing taxonomy development, inspired by the Open Demographics Project, to enhance inclusivity and representation in open source communities. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_026.jpg\|300]] | The slide references the CHAOSS project, which focuses on community health analytics in open source software, highlighting its role in developing metrics and tools for sustainability. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_027.jpg\|300]] | The slide proposes sharing taxonomy examples via GitHub, encouraging collaboration and visibility to prevent isolated development and enhance open source research. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy/preview_028.jpg\|300]] | The slide concludes with contact information for Sophia Vargas, inviting further engagement and collaboration in open source taxonomy development. ## Links [Slides](https://fosdem.org/2025/events/attachments/fosdem-2025-5264-do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy-/slides/237890/FOSDEM_D_0xhnPMJ.pdf) [Video recording (AV1/WebM)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/aw1126/fosdem-2025-5264-do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy-.av1.webm) [Video recording (MP4)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/aw1126/fosdem-2025-5264-do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy-.av1.mp4) [Video recording subtitle file (VTT)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/aw1126/fosdem-2025-5264-do-we-need-another-open-source-software-taxonomy-.vtt)