Fairness & Digital Infrastructure

How do perceptions of unfairness when contributing to an open source project affect the sustainability of critical open source digital infrastructure projects?

Perceptions of unfairness impact the cooperative maintenance of critical open source digital infrastructure projects. We seek to improve diversity, inclusion, community efficacy, and the software products themselves by changing how contributors engage in open source projects and how project organizers address perceived unfairness. First, we aim to identify concepts and actions for project maintainers to detect and address perceptions of unfairness in their projects before the projects are affected. Second, we aim to develop fairness metrics to be integrated with the CHAOSS badging program. Finally, we aim to improve our understanding of the community maintenance of shared resources more generally.