Supporting global software development in open source ecosystems: a role for actability in the Pragmatic Web

New forms of collaboration between organizations based on open source principles are rapidly emerging. The collaboration is typically done in a spirit of co-opetition whereby companies, often SMEs, share cost and risk by developing software jointly and openly. The paper elaborates how this emerging phenomenon of open source ecosystems can be understood from the perspective of actability and the Pragmatic Web. The concept of open source ecosystems as a form of global software development is explored and actability is presented as a useful concept for articulating design criteria for the required collaborative tools. In doing so, a possible research agenda for pragmatic web research in this domain is outlined.