IWSECO 2012: The Fourth International Workshop on Software Ecosystems

18th of June 2012 - Boston, Massachusetts

Co-located with the Fourth International Conference on Software Business

CALL FOR PAPERS

After three successful workshops (2009, 2010, 2011) IWSECO continues its world tour to Boston, MA, in 2012. Due to its more business oriented nature, this year we seek submissions specifically geared towards governance and coordination mechanisms for software ecosystems.

Software vendors no longer function as independent units, where all customers are end-users, where there are no suppliers, and where all software is built in-house. Instead, software vendors have become networked, i.e., software vendors are depending on (communities of) service and software component suppliers, value-added-resellers, and pro-active customers who build and share customizations. Software vendors now have to consider their strategic role in the software ecosystem to survive. With their role in the software ecosystems in mind, software vendors can become more successful by opening up their business, devising new business models, forging long-lasting relationships with partnership networks, and overcoming technical and social challenges that are part of these innovations.

The focus of the first workshop was the definition of the research field. The second workshop’s focus was the ‘ideal’ architecture of a software platform. The third workshop on software ecosystems focused on the modeling of software ecosystems. This fourth workshop we intend to talk about managing ecosystems, i.e., how to manage a network of partners, developers, service deliverers, and other third parties that play a role in the software ecosystem. Typically, software vendors have several instruments available to them for managing their ecosystem, such as the creation of partnership models or the introduction of component and service certification. The effects of these decisions on the software ecosystem have not yet been made measurable, which can be considered one of the main challenges of the field of software ecosystems. We welcome submissions that specifically address this topic.

A software ecosystem is a set of actors functioning as a unit and interacting with a shared market for software and services, together with the relationships among them. These relationships are frequently underpinned by a common technological platform or market and operate through the exchange of information, resources and artifacts. Several challenges lie in the research area of software ecosystems. To begin with, insightful and scalable modeling techniques for software ecosystems currently do not exist. Furthermore, methods are required that enable software vendors to transform their legacy architectures to accommodate reusability of internal common artifacts and external components and services. Finally, methods are required that support software vendors in choosing survival strategies in software ecosystems.

The Workshop on Software Ecosystems aims to further increase the body of knowledge in this specific area of software reuse and software engineering by providing a forum to exchange ideas and discuss state-of-the-art results. It will build and shape the community of leading practitioners and research experts. Given the relevance of software ecosystems, and the rather unexplored scientific and industry contribution in this field, the workshop will deliver a state-of-the-practice overview of the available knowledge on software ecosystems, as well as an overview of challenges for further research.

* Relevant Topics *
Submitted papers shall address topics of interest to software ecosystems and software business. Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to:
-Organizational openness
-Two and N-sided markets
-Application Stores
-Strategic benefits analyses of ecosystem management
-Partner management
-Software development governance
-Software ecosystem modeling
-Software ecosystem practices and experience
-Software business models
-Product software and software licensing
-Economic impact of software ecosystems
-Software ecosystem creation
-Keystone and niche player survival strategies
-Formal modeling of business models
-Architectural implications of reusability
-API development
-Publishing APIs
-Software product management
-Software product lines
-Software development community management
-Software ecosystem orchestration
-Market-specific domain engineering
-Open source software ecosystems
-Virtualized software enterprises
-API compatibility over subsequent releases

* Workshop proceedings *
We have no specific information about the publisher, but we are looking for IEEE or ACM support. We are in search of a scientific journal for publishing of extended and revised versions of the best papers. In previous years papers have been published using CEUR-WS or ACM.

* Paper preparation, submission and evaluation *
We welcome both research and industry papers to IWSECO. They must be original and not submitted to or accepted by any other conference or journal. To encourage industrial participation we also welcome short industry papers and case studies. Papers should be submitted in electronic form (PDF) using EasyChair at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iwseco2012 . Papers must be formatted using the LNBIP style and can fill a maximum of 12 pages.

* Objective *
IWSECO 2012 pursues the following objectives:
- Build upon the body of knowledge in software ecosystems, and identify challenges and future avenues for research relevant for both academia and industry.
- Establish software ecosystems as a research field within the greater field of software engineering, software management, and software reuse.
- Provide to software product managers and researchers a dedicated forum for exchanging ideas and best practices and thus foster industry-academia collaboration.
- The field of software ecosystems is rather unexplored both from scientific and industrial perspectives. This mandates IWSECO to participate in bringing researchers and industrial representatives together, for the purpose of exchanging ideas, but also to iteratively set the research agenda based on industry needs. The IWSECO 2012 workshop aims at continuing to increase the body of knowledge for software ecosystems by providing a forum to exchange ideas and publish research results. It will build and shape the community of leading practitioners and research experts.

* Organizing Committee *
Slinger Jansen – Utrecht University, the Netherlands (s.jansen@cs.uu.nl)
Jan Bosch – Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden (jan@janbosch.com)
Carina Frota Alves – Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil (cfa@cin.ufpe.br)

* Steering Committee *
Sjaak Brinkkemper (s.brinkkemper@cs.uu.nl)
Anthony Finkelstein (a.finkelstein@cs.ucl.ac.uk)

* Important dates *
15 April 2012: Deadline for workshop submissions
15 May 2012: Notification of authors
1 June 2012: Camera-ready papers due
18 June 2012: The International Workshop on Software Ecosystems
All deadlines are 23:59 Apia, Samoa time